Alter, Contreras, Gwon et al. Lead 'Composers Sing Composers' at Le Poisson Rouge, 4/6

Alina Gutiérrez and Ashley Mas are pleased to announce Composers Sing Composers featuring Gaby Alter, Joey Contreras, Drew Gasparini, Jonathan Reid Gealt, Adam Gwon, Brian Lowdermilk, Ryan Scott Oliver and Zoe Sarnak, a one-night-only concert event taking place Wednesday, April 6, 2011 at 7pm.

Many of today's up-and-coming composers/lyricists began their lives in the theater as performers but have since left the stage to focus on creating the music that is shaping the future of musical theater. At Composers Sing Composers, your favorite new musical theater writers will get back into the spotlight to perform their own songs! On April 6th, these eight composers will take the stage together for a night that will make musical theater history. Come out to support your favorite composers for this exciting event that will break all kinds of boundaries between writer, performer, and audience. The evening will also feature Sharon Kenny on piano and Emily Brausa on cello, and will be directed by Samantha Saltzman.

Le Poisson Rouge is located at 158 Bleecker Street. Tickets are on sale now and are $15 in advance, and $18 at the door. Tickets can be purchased by calling (212) 505-FISH (3474), visiting www.lepoissonrouge.com or in person at the Le Poisson Rouge box office. Table seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis, and there is a two-item food/drink minimum at tables.

Gaby Alter is a New York-based songwriter and composer. His music has been featured on MTV, PBS, National Public Radio, and the G4 Network and at the South by Southwest Film Festival. He is a Jonathan Larson grant recipient, and has won awards from the San Francisco Theater Critics' Circle and the New York Fringe Festival.

Gaby wrote music and lyrics for BAND GEEKS! (with Tommy Newman, Mark Allen and Gordon Greenberg), which was produced at Goodspeed Musicals in 2010. Other projects include NOBODY LOVES YOU with Itamar Moses; 29, a pop-rock song cycle with Tommy Newman; the cabaret NOT THAT WE'RE BITTER with Sophie Jaff; and YOUNG ZOMBIES IN LOVE with Damian Hess, aka MC Frontalot. His music has been featured at the National Alliance of Musical Theatre's Festival of New Works, Goodspeed's Festival of New Artists, The Summer Play Festival at The Public Theater, Barrington Stage Company, Joe's Pub, the New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), Lincoln Center Library, Merkin Hall and on Sirius Radio.

Gaby has written songs for PBS TV (Music Time With Mr. Steve), and the theme for the NPR show Backstory. He helped score (and starred in) the documentary Nerdcore Rising, which premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival and is now on Netflix Instant Watch and Hulu.com. As Gminor7, he is rapper MC Frontalot's keyboardist and co-writer, with songs in video games and on cable television. He is an ASCAP member and alum of Tisch's Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program.

Joey Contreras is a new musical theatre songwriter in the New York scene. He wrote the music and lyrics for the song cycle, This Thing Called Love, which was workshopped in Philadelphia and is currently in development, along with his other project, Wallflower. In addition to two concerts at The Duplex in New York City, Joey's music and arrangements have been featured at Joe's Pub, Le Poisson Rouge, the Laurie Beechman Theater and the 2010 Broadway in South Africa Gala.

His first album, Love Me, Love Me Not: The Music of Joey Contreras, features exciting guest performances by some of Broadway's newest talent and is available on iTunes and in physical format at CDbaby.com. For more information on Joey Contreras, visit www.joeycontreras.com

Drew Gasparini has certainly begun to make his mark as a composer in the theater community since making the move to NYC. His works include: Circles (book co-written by Louis Sacco), Above My Pay Grade a corporate musical commissioned by Holt Learning (book by Louis Sacco). He has contributed to many other projects such as MAC Award winning, Cait Doyle's Hot Mess In Manhattan for which he wrote "The Text Message Song". His musical, Crazy, Just Like Me went on to be featured in the San Francisco Theater Festival and is making it's regional theater debut with the UpTown Players in Dallas, Texas for their 2011 season. Drew has twice been the featured composer for the New York Theater Barn, Seattle's New Voices, and a featured writer for The National Alliance for Musical Theater's (NAMT) 2009 songwriter's showcase at New World Stages. His music has been performed all over the country at colleges including the Boston Conservatory, and in several NYC venues such as Joe's Pub, the Triad Theatre, Le Poisson Rouge, and a sold out concert: Music & Lyrics of Drew Gasparini at the Laurie Beechman.

Most recently, Drew was commissioned by Broadway in South Africa to compose a song for their third annual benefit, and has been selected as a composer for NewMusicalTheatre.com.

Drew is a proud member of ASCAP, and is a part of the BMI/Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop for composers and lyricists. Currently Drew is working on getting Circles produced, writing Pearl (a children's show) and a one-act musical called Inappropriate Stories Told at a Bar.

Jonathan Reid Gealt attended the Boston Conservatory and graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree in Musical Theater Performance, having a dual emphasis in both dance and composition. He moved to New York City the day after his last class, hit the ground running, and has found much success his first few years in New York. His music has been featured in venues and concerts all over New York City including the Broadway in South Africa Benefits, Symphony Space, The Canal Room, Joe's Pub, The Triad, The Laurie Beechman, The Lucille Lortel, Le Poisson Rouge, and Birdland. Outside New York City, his music has been sung around the world including: Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, London, Manila, Japan, Australia, and Canada. Jonathan is currently working on three musicals and is in his first year with the BMI Theater Writing Workshop. The demo recording of Jonathan's first full length song cycle, Forward, has gained considerable buzz online and in New York City showcasing the incredible Kelli O'Hara, Liz Callaway, Lauren Kennedy, Shoshana Bean, Michael McElroy, Jonathan Groff, and Tituss Burgess. Collectively, his online videos (via YouTube) have passed more than 300,000 views.

In addition to the constant work on his musical compositions, Jonathan is also writing his first screenplay and just released his debut album, Thirteen Stories Down, on Sh-k-Boom/Ghostlight Records. The CD features the vocal talents of Kate Baldwin, Lauren Kennedy, Capathia Jenkins, Caissie Levy, Natalie Weiss, Carrie Manolakos, Bridie Carroll, Alysha Umphress, Matt Doyle, Darius de Haas, Tituss Burgess, Quentin Earl Darrington, Will Chase, Adam Chanler- Berat, Zak Resnick, Adam Armstrong, and Jonathan himself, as well as Stephanie Umoh, Lindsay Mendez, and the Broadway Inspirational Voices. For more information, please visit: www.jonathan-reid-gealt.com

Adam Gwon's musical Ordinary Days has been produced at Roundabout Theatre Company (cast album: Ghostlight Records - named in the top 10 albums of 2010 by TalkinBroadway.com), in London's West End, and at theaters around the world. Upcoming: The Boy Detective Fails (book: Joe Meno), Cloudlands (book: Octavio Solis) and Bernice Bobs Her Hair (book/lyrics: Julia Jordan).
Honors include the Fred Ebb Award, the ASCAP Harold Adamson Award, the MAC John Wallowitch Award, a MAC Award nomination for best song, as well as commissions from Signature Theatre (Arlington, VA), Broadway Across America, South Coast Repertory, and the EST/Sloan Project. Adam has been a fellow at the MacDowell Colony and the Dramatists Guild, is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and is a member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild. www.adamgwon.com

Brian Lowdermilk (B.M., Music Theory and Composition, 2005) transferred to NYU/ Steinhardt Music after his freshman year as a music composition at Harvard University. He was awarded our department's Alan Menken Scholarship in Music Composition during his junior and senior years. In his senior year, he had the extraordinary honor of winning the 2005 Richard Rodgers Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for one of his musicals. The award, which carries a $40,000 prize, is usually given to much older composers. The letter of congratulations from the American Academy of Arts and Letters to Brian was written by one of the members of the selection committee, Stephen Sondheim.

Brian is the recipient of a 2006 Jonathan Larson Award and a 2005-2006 Dramatists Guild Fellowship. He is also a member of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop.

With playwright Kait Kerrigan, Brian is writing TheaterworksUSA's adaptation of Henry and Mudge, which will premiere next season at the Off-Broadway, Lucille Lortel Theatre. Their work has been most recently showcased at the 2005 New York Musical Theater Festival, for which they were co-commissioned by the Upright Citizen's Brigade and the festival to write Wrong Number. Other shows include The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown, currently under option by a commercial producer, and The Woman Upstairs, seen in the 2004 New York Musical Theatre Festival.

Ryan Scott Oliver is a 2009 Larson Grant recipient; Music and lyrics for 35mm, Darling, Mrs. Sharp (2008 Richard Rodgers Award Winner, at Playwrights Horizons July 2009 starring Jane Krakowski, directed by Michael Greif); a collection of his work, Rated RSO, played the Kennedy Center, Joe's Pub, New York Musical Theatre Festival/ Off-Broadway: TheatreWorksUSA's We the People. Songbook now available for purchase: Music+Lyrics by Ryan Scott Oliver: Volume 1 from www.ryanscottoliver.com

Zoe Sarnak is a composer, lyricist and playwright. She graduated from Harvard University in 2009 magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology. She also completed a secondary concentration in Music, with a focus in music theory and composition, while studying under contemporary classical composer Nicholas Vines. Zoe wrote the book, music and
lyrics for The Quad an original rock musical, developed and performed at Harvard University. She received grants from the Harvard Office of Fine Arts and the Radcliffe Women's Center for a two-week workshop of the piece, which culminated in two staged readings in March 2009. She then served as Music Director and pianist for the full production, which debuted at Harvard's Loeb Experimental Theatre April 2009 to rave reviews.

After moving to New York, Zoe served as Assistant Director for the NYMF 2009 production of Lighter, participated in the BMI Lehman Engel Workshop, and served as music director for a range of concerts and cabarets. In 2010, two New York Staged Readings of her latest full- length musical A Lasting Impression were produced by East 3rd Productions. The piece is now in continued development with East 3rd through workshops in 2011, aimed for a 2012 opening. The Quad will be presented in Summer 2011 as Workshop and Showcase by Broadway Theatre Studio, sponsored by the John W. Engeman Theater. Zoe is also currently working on several new shows including projects with playwright/lyricist Sara Nicholson and a collaboration on a new children's musical with Drew Gasparini. Her rock duo, with singer/songwriter Eric Michael Krop, plays sets all around the city and with an upcoming EP release in the works.