Famous composer to hold workshops on campus

Award winning composer Steven Schwartz will be performing and conducting workshops with students at Wright State March 18-19.

Schwartz has composed for numerous Broadway musicals, including “Wicked,” “Godspell” and “Children of Eden.” He has also composed scores to films such as “Pocahontas,” “Enchanted,” “The Prince of Egypt” and “The Hunchback of Notre Dame.”

Schwartz’s appearance will be the first of what will become an annual “Distinguished Visiting Artist Series” presented by Wright State’s Collaborative Education, Leadership and Innovation in the Arts (CELIA).

CELIA is a collaboration of Wright State's Music, Dance, Theater, Film, Art and Art History departments. The organization is designed to enhance collaboration among the arts and form new partnerships, according to their webpage on the Wright State website.

Schwartz was acquired through CELIA's collaboration with Human Race Theater Co., where Schwartz is a board member and a resident artist, according to Wright State Communications and Marketing.

Director of CELIA Hank Dahlman said that they were looking for an artist that would help to improve the students.

"We want somebody who is able to work with our students," Dahlman said. "Someone who is able to relate to students and help them learn."

Two of Schwartz’s collaborators will also visit to interact with students. Tony Award winning actress Debbie Gravitte and vocalist Scott Coulter will also be conducting workshops on March 18. In the workshops, students studying the arts will perform a piece of music for the conductor and receive a response and critique, according to Dahlman.

"It's like a private lesson, except it's from 30 of your best friends," Dahlman said.

On March 18, Gravitte and Coulter will begin conducting concurrent master classes in Schuster Hall and the Herbst Theater (Creative Arts Center) in the morning, and will switch students in the afternoon. Schwartz will arrive later in the afternoon, and at 8 pm that evening the three of them will perform together in the Festival Playhouse.

On the following day, Schwartz will be conducting workshops of his own.

Tickets to the concert are still available through the Wright State Creative Arts Center Box Office, but they are going quickly, according to Dahlman.