An Evening with Stephen Schwartz: The Early Years
Meet one of American musical theater's most talented composers, Stephen Schwartz. An excerpt from a discussion andΒ ...
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Search every verified Steven Schwartz interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote β each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In a 2018 discussion titled "An Evening with Stephen Schwartz: The Early Years," Schwartz described his childhood introduction to musical theater. He said he grew up on Long Island and was interested in musical theatre from a young age. He recalled that his parents were friends with composer George Klein Singer, who had written a concept album in the 1950s that was being turned into a musical. Schwartz stated that he would listen to Singer play songs from the work and later try to pick them out on the piano. Schwartz also described his early creative process, noting that he would take scripts for musicals he had not seen from the library. He said he would put the scripts up at the piano while he was supposed to be practicing, look at the lyrics, and write his own tunes for them. He added that when he later heard the original music, he often felt he had done "much, much better."
“I grew up on Long Island and basically was interested in musical theatre since I was a little kid.”
“My parents happen to be friendly with a gentleman named George Klein Singer who was a composer and he had written what we would now call a concept album back in the 50s.”
“He had written what we would now call a concept album back in the 50s called Archie and ... which he was turning into a musical when they first met him.”
“That musical was eventually premiered on Broadway and while he was working on the musical he would play songs from it for friends and I would sort of sit over on the side and listen.”
Meet one of American musical theater's most talented composers, Stephen Schwartz. An excerpt from a discussion andΒ ...
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