Meet the Composer and Orchestra of BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY

"The Bridges of Madison County" captured the nation's attention in 1992 as a best-selling novel, then again in 1995 as a major motion picture. It is a compelling, two-time Tony Award-winning musical now on stage at Peninsula Players through August 13. "The Bridges of Madison County" is the touching story of Francesca, a lovely Italian woman who married an American soldier to flee war-ravaged Italy. She is looking forward to a rare four days alone on her Iowa farm as her family heads to the 1965 Indiana State Fair when ruggedly handsome, National Geographic photographer Robert Kincaid pulls into her driveway seeking directions. What happens in those next four days may very well alter the course of Francesca's life.

Based on Robert James Waller's novel, Jason Robert Brown's score mixes pop, folk, country and classical music, and received the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Score, the Drama Desk Awards for Outstanding Music and Outstanding Orchestrations and the Tony Award for Best Original Score and Best Orchestrations.
Brown has received the Tony Award for Best Original Orchestration for two of his five Broadway musicals, "Parade" and "The Bridges of Madison County." His others include "13," "Honeymoon in Vegas" and "The Last Five Years." Brown is one of the most highly regarded contemporary theater composers. His works are heard in numerous auditions and assigned as coursework at musical theater colleges, more than just about any other living composer beside Stephen Sondheim.

"The score of 'The Bridges of Madison County' is true Jason Robert Brown," said Valerie Maze, music director and conductor for Peninsula Players. "Challenging, creative and always keeping you on your toes. The music is lush, romantic, full of surprising harmonies and some tunes have driving rhythms.

Since 1935, Peninsula Players Theatre has offered variety in its seasons from mysteries and comedies, to dramas and musicals. Talented performers have graced the stage performing composed works with their vocal talent supported by equally talented musicians. Maze and the orchestra for "The Bridges of Madison County" were especially selected for this project.

Maze's conducting credits for the Players' include "The Full Monty," "Nunsense," "A Little Night Music" and "Cabaret." At Lyric Opera of Chicago, in addition to serving as assistant conductor and dance pianist for several operas, she has served as assistant conductor on "My Fair Lady," "The King and I," "Carousel," "The Sound of Music," "Oklahoma!" and "Showboat."

"At times, the score has hints of Sondheim, especially in how challenging it is," Maze said. "I always say, play what's on the page. Jason Robert Brown wrote exactly what he wanted. And he wrote to tell a story. The music and lyrics should all contribute together to tell that story."

Brown grew up in the suburbs of New York City and was influenced by "Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street" and "Sunday in the Park with George;" if not for them, Brown said he would have joined a rock band and tried to be Billy Joel. "But once I heard what could be done, what enormous musical and emotional potential could be unleashed, I knew I had to write musicals," Brown said in The Sondheim Review. Without Sondheim's example Brown said, "he wouldn't even know who to become."

"I take very seriously that there is this thing called the lyric musical theatre," Brown said in a 2015 interview with This Stage. He reflected on playing his part of an increasingly marginalized tradition - musical theater composer. "It is a place where songs explore the characters and define the territory and there's a sort of musical integrity that is attached to it. Everything is of a piece and there for a reason. I don't think most musicals trade in that any more - and that's fine, most musicals make a lot more money than I do, so that's quite all right. But I never wanted to write 'Mamma Mia!' or 'The Book of Mormon' - they're not my thing, I don't care about them. What I do is very different."

After composing "Honeymoon in Vegas" Brown was looking for a project in which to write romantic, sincere music. "And so Marsha (Norman) and I were out looking for what the romance was going to be," he said in an interview with The Arizona Republic. "We kept saying, 'What is our 'La Traviata? And then that's when RoBert Waller's people came to us, and because I was looking for a big romance and because I was looking for something with a real American texture to it, it was exactly the right property at the right moment.

"It's easy to see the story as just about these two people...but what we saw the book being about is this massive choice that Francesca has to make between the life that she built from the ground up or this other thing that has arrived in her life like a thunderbolt and changed everything."

Door County guitarist George Sawyn is thrilled to be a part of "The Bridges of Madison County" at Peninsula Players. "From the first time I listened to the soundtrack, several songs reminded me of the 'folk' or 'Americana' elements of the early Pat Metheny Group, the inclusion of various acoustic guitar styles in a jazz setting," Sawyn said.

Also in the orchestra are pianist and conductor Maze, keyboardist Janet Anderson, fiddler, violinist, guitarist and mandolinist Lynn Gudmundsen, bassist Craig McClelland, cellist Kim Souther, percussionist Bruce Newbern and guitarist Sawyn. Anderson, Gudmundsen, Newbern, Sawyn and Souther call Door County home and McClelland recently relocated to New Mexico and collectively represent 300 years of musicality.

Brown's orchestrations are exciting for the musicians to perform as well as the cast.

"The acoustic guitar parts are essential to the sound, mood and feeling of the songs in this show, and many styles and techniques are incorporated into the various songs: folk/rock strumming, folk and bossa nova finger-picking, blues and others," Swayn said. "I very much enjoy this sort of diversity in music."

Maze is thrilled to be working with these gifted musicians. "Playing with such wonderful players who absolutely love the score is a joy," she said. "You can't replace the kind of commitment and passion."

Anderson is a piano teacher and freelance musician with the Anderson Music Studio of Sturgeon Bay. She has taught keyboarding classes for more than 24 years as well as played accompaniment for the music and theater departments for the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay.

Gudmundsen played violin since age nine and eventually picked up the ukulele and guitar. An Interlochen Arts Academy graduate, she is classically trained and used her fiddle voice by playing folk, blues, country and bluegrass.

Maze's recent Chicago credits include conductor with Drury Lane Theatre's "White Christmas," Goodman Theatre's "Brigadoon," and Chicago Shakespeare Theater's "The Little Mermaid," "Gypsy" and "Follies." She received a Joseph Jefferson nomination, Chicago's version of the Tony Award, for her work with Writers Theatre's production of "A Little Night Music."

McClelland is heard across the county playing bass, tuba and ukulele with the Vespus Marimba Band, the Sukey Jump Band and the Gazebo Guys. He is also a composer whose works were recently featured at the Phoenix Experimental Arts Festival.

Newbern can be heard playing accordion, guitar and/or banjo as one of the Gazebo Boys when not in the classroom at St. John Bosco School. He plays in various pit bands for local theaters and directs a contemporary music group at Bay View Lutheran Church.

Sawyn has been playing guitar since 1967 and is fluent in a variety of musical styles including jazz, rock, country and classical music. Sawyn was a professional guitarist in the Chicago area for 38 years before relocating to Door County, where he has performed and recorded with Door County vocalists such as Jeanne Kuhns, Katie Lott and Rändi Fay as well as session work at Hans Christian's Studio 330.

Souther is a professional pianist and cellist who resides in Carlsville, Wisconsin. Known for her genre-bending techniques, Souther recently collaborated with Yo Yo Ma and members of the Silk Road Ensemble at the inaugural Global Musicians Workshop.

"The Bridges of Madison County" is sponsored by Alibi Marina, Harbor Guest House and The Cordon Family Foundation.

"The Bridges of Madison County" performs Tuesdays through Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 7:30 p.m. with a 4 p.m. matinee on Sunday, August 13. Discount tickets are available for groups of 15 or more. Individual ticket prices range from $41 to $47. For more information or to reserve tickets, phone the Peninsula Players Box Office at 920-868-3287 or visit the website at www.peninsulaplayers.com.

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