TV Exclusive: CUTTING-EDGE COMPOSERS CORNER- Hubbard & Mossberg Sing Virginia Hart Pike's 'Out on the Edge'

This week's featured composer is Virginia Hart Pike, whose song "Out on The Edge" was sung beautifully by Cristin Hubbard and Mary Mossberg at our concert at Joe's Pub.

When we asked Virginia about her inspiration for this song, she said, "'Out on The Edge' was written for a musical I'm writing with my collaborators, Robyn and Nathan Kassas, called City of Dreams. The song is sung by two artists living in New York City who are burnt out by years of financial struggle and rejection. It is a cry from the heart that represents the state of many artists in the city battling similar demons in the musical. It also foreshadows a relationship the New Yorkers eventually establish with a family from Australia who have come to New York in pursuit of their own dreams, and who are able to inspire and refresh the artists, and help them see what is really inside of them. Eventually all of the characters realize that rather than being the 'city of broken dreams,' New York really is meant to be their 'promised land'."

Virginia Hart Pike is a composer, conductor and pianist living in New York City. She regularly works with legendary composer Charles Strouse as a musical director and pianist on his developing work. She has been featured as a composer and musical director for several Cutting Edge Composer events at the NYMF festival and Joe's Pub, where songs from her musical in progress with collaborators Nathan and Robyn Kassas,City of Dreams, have been performed. Pike also writes classical and choral music and conducts choirs, currently at The Kings College in Downtown Manhattan and at Christ Church, NYC. Her choral works and art songs have been performed by numerous choirs and soloists throughout NYC and beyond. Her full-length classical dance piece,The Prodigal Daughter, and choral song cycle, First and Fairest, were performedto sold-out audiences Off-Broadway by Skylight Dance Theater. As a musician and musical director, Virginia has worked on Broadway and in regional theaters including the McCarter, New York Stage and Film Festival, and Theater Virginia. She currently teaches musical theater at The Kings College, and is the coordinator and drama instructor for an arts outreach program through her church (TORCC-NY) called New York Generation, which offers free ballet, hip-hop, singing and drama classes to kidsand adults in midtown Manhattan. She holds a M.F.A. from NYU's Tisch School of the Arts in Musical Theater Writing, and a B.S. from Duke University.