Joseph Church is a composer, conductor, arranger, pianist, and professor of music. His career has been eclectic and exciting, collaborating with and guiding some of the entertainment industry’s most remarkable artists and promising talent. He is perhaps best known for his music direction and arrangements for two groundbreaking Broadway musicals, The Lion King and The Who’s Tommy. Other credits as music director, conductor, or keyboardist include In The Heights, Little Shop of Horrors (original company and first national tour), Les Miserables, Amazing Grace, Sister Act, The Book of Mormon, Randy Newman’s Faust, and Radio City’s Christmas Spectacular. His work as a composer spans multiple genres from popular songwriting to musical theatre to serious music. He is currently the composer/lyricist on two theatrical projects, Who Is Jimmy Pants?, a satire of jukebox musicals soon to open Off-Broadway, and Music of the City, a concept album/stage revue of song and dance inspired by modern urban life, in development. He is the recipient of an American Prize in Music for his oratorio “The Tortoise and the Two Ducks,” written in collaboration with legendary lyricist Sheldon Harnick. Joseph is the author of two books, Music Direction for the Stage: A View from the Podium and Rock in the Musical theatre: A Guide for Singers, both published by Oxford University Press. He received a doctorate in composition in 1996 from NYU, and has been a faculty member there since then, teaching composition, songwriting, conducting, collaborative piano, and vocal performance.

http://www.churchmuse.com/

Jeff Bienstock was born in Santa Monica, California and has a Masters in Composition from NYU Steinhardt. His first full-length musical, The Morning After / The Night Before, was produced in the 2010 NYC Fringe Festival and enjoyed a sold-out run at the Lucille Lortel Theater, also winning a Best-of-Fest Award for Outstanding Music and Lyrics.

In 2011, Jeff and collaborators Eric March and Patrick Link received a Sloan Foundation Grant to create The Bone Wars, an evolutionary new musical that premiered at The Ensemble Studio Theater in 2012. That same year, Jeff was invited to participate in the Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project at Northwestern University, where he was mentored by Craig Carnelia and Andrew Lippa. He also met Andrea Daly, a talented songwriter and future collaborator. Dorks, Drunks, And Dinosaurs: The Songs of Jeff Bienstock, a showcase of Jeff’s musical and lyrical talents, premiered at the Laurie Beechman Theater in 2013.

Later in 2023, Jeff and Andrea were invited to East Haddam, CT for a two-week residency at the world-famous Goodspeed Musicals organization. At the end of this stay, they presented their peers with an informal reading of the first act of Legendale, an original musical comedy about life, love, and video games. Legendale was selected to be one of eight shows presented at the National Alliance of Musical Theater (NAMT) 2015 Annual Festival of New Musicals, and was presented at Stephen Schwartz’s ASCAP Workshop the following year. It received its world premiere at Denmark’s Fredericia Teater in March of 2017, and its American premiere at Dayton, Ohio’s Human Race Theatre in September of the same year.

Jeff is an alumnus of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop; his songs and characters have been performed in venues ranging from 54 Below in Manhattan to the Wallis Center in Beverly Hills. He currently lives in Brooklyn and would be hard-pressed to leave.

http://www.jbienstock.com/

Jim Kierstead is a Grammy-nominated, Emmy, Olivier, and six-time Tony Award-winning producer of the Broadway, touring, Toronto, and London productions of Kinky Boots, Pippin, Hadestown, The Inheritance, The Lehman Trilogy, and Company. In addition, he has been a co-producer of 25 Broadway productions and is currently represented on Broadway with Sweeney Todd and Hadestown. Off-Broadway projects include The Gospel According To Heather, Titanique, Stranger Sings, Unexpected Joy, Yank! (Drama Desk and Lucille Lortel Nominees), Bright Colors and Bold Patterns, and Thrill Me (Drama Desk and Outer Critics Circle Nominees). He has also produced extensively in London’s West End and produced Miami’s hit immersive show Amparo. Jim is on the Board of Directors of The York Theatre Company and The Abingdon Theatre Company and is the founder of the digital theatre content creation company Broadway Virtual.

http://kiersteadproductions.com/

Photo by SneakPeek Photography

http://www.stephennachamie.com

Stephen Nachamie is an award-winning Stage and Film Director currently developing new works for stage and screen.  

Throughout his career, he has had the pleasure of working with such celebrities as Whoopi Goldberg, Dr. Ruth K. Westheimer, Alan Menken, Jane Krakowski, Laura Benanti, Josh Groban, Liz Callaway, John Wesley Shipp, Kaye Ballard, Faith Prince and Country Music Stars Kellie Pickler and Mickey Guyton.

Selected Credits:

Broadway:  She Loves Me – (Associate Director, Roundabout Theatre Company / Broadway HD)

New York Directing Credits:  The Off-Broadway Premiere of Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise at 59e59, Little Shop of Horrors – Reunion Concert (with Alan Menken), Small Town Confessions (with Tony Winners Alice Ripley and Daisy Eagan), Buyer and Cellar, My Name is Asher Lev, Becoming Dr. Ruth, Rounding Third (Penguin Rep), Animals Out of Paper (Hudson Stage Co.) Mr. Confidential and Foreverman (NYMF), Driving Miss Daisy (with Larry Marshall and Joy Franz, Harbor Lights Theatre), Oliver! (Engeman Theatre), Carrie (New York Film Academy) Bright Star and Into the Woods (NYU / Tisch Guest Director) and the 25th Anniversary Revival of Harvey Fierstein’s Torch Song Trilogy (starring Seth Rudetsky)

Regional: Ken Ludwig’s Dear Jack, Dear Louise (Shadowland Stages and Penguin Rep) Sweeney Todd (starring Carolee Carmello – Opera Saratoga), Becoming Dr. Ruth (Cincinnati Playhouse), Fiddler on the Roof (with Tony Winner Debbie Gravitte and Loni Ackerman), Becoming Dr. Ruth, Tick, tick…BOOM!, (New Rep), Sex with Strangers, 4,000 Miles (Capital Rep), The Whipping Man (Omaha Playhouse), Lady Day… (WHAT), Camelot, 1776, A Chorus Line (Helen Hayes Award – Olney Theatre), West Side Story (Italian Opera Tour). 

Film/TV: Macy’s Singing Christmas Tree (Thanksgiving Day Parade/NBC – Emmy Winner Best Song.). What’s Left, Stand Still (Telly Award – Direction) and the Award-winning films and videos: Winning New York, Bang! Boom! Pow! and internet hit Jersey Christmas (with Ben Rauch co-produced by Melissa Rauch). 

For four years, Stephen was the stage director / writer and facilitator of WITNESS PROJECT with the UJA, bringing Holocaust Survivors and High School students together to keep these first-person accounts of the atrocities of World War II alive for future generations to learn from. 

Mr. Nachamie began his career in New York Theatre while at Hunter College High School as a PA for the final year of the Original Off-Broadway Production of Little Shop of Horrors. 

BFA from NYU/Tisch and is on the faculties of New York Film Academy and Marymount Manhattan College.  Proud member of SDC.  www.stephennachamie.com