TV Exclusive: CUTTING EDGE COMPOSERS CORNER- Derek Klena and Emma Hunton Sing 'It's Been a While'

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This week's CEC feature is by a very talented songwriting team from Canada, Akiva Romer-Segal and Colleen Dauncey. "It's Been a While" was performed by Wicked's Derek Klena and Next to Normal's Emma Hunton at our CEC concert at NYMF 2012. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do!

Colleen and Akiva shared the following words about their process for writing this duet:

"It's Been a While" is a duet from the first show we wrote together, The Subway Songs, a song-cycle following the personalities, stories and emotions that drift on and off a busy subway car throughout the course of a day. We explored contemporary urban themes through the eyes of lovestruck crossword puzzlers, an expectant father, a panhandler, and a whole array of characters, situations and music. In this song two ex lovers are trapped next to each other in the rush hour crowd and forced to deal with some unresolved issues from their past.

With the completion of this song we felt like we had finally found our own groove as collaborators and songwriters, and for that reason - and a few others - this duet will always hold a special place in our hearts. Another one of those reasons was the incredible experience of watching the immense talent on the Cutting Edge Composers stage interpret our song. We hope you enjoy "It's Been A While".

Colleen Dauncey (Music) and Akiva Romer-Segal (Lyrics) are a Toronto-based songwriting team who have written the scores to The Subway Songs, Scenes from the Bathhouse (Talk is Free Theatre) and most recently the Toronto Fringe Festival hit Bremen Rock City. They have also written numerous stand-alone songs that have been performed by cabaret performers, recording artists, and Broadway stars. They were selected as participants in the 2011 Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project in Chicago and Theatre 20's Composium initiative, and they are two-time grant recipients from the Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent On Records (FACTOR). Additional info and music can be found at www.colleenandakiva.com