Interview: The Broadway Sinfonietta Founder Macy Schmidt Talks Bryant Park Performance, Being an Industry Trailblazer & More

Macy Schmidt is the founder and Music Director of The Broadway Sinfonietta, the trailblazing, all female-identifying and majority BIPOC orchestra and production company.

The Broadway Sinfonietta has performed with artists including Jordin Sparks, Brandy, Lady A's Hillary Scott and Laura Bell Bundy, the TikTok musicals Ratatouille and For You, Paige, and theatrical organizations such as Ars Nova, Second Stage and the Atlantic Theater Company.

Tonight, The Broadway Sinfonietta is presenting a free outdoor concert at 7 pm for Bryant Park Picnic Performances as part of Carnegie Hall Citywide. The performance, which marks The Broadway Sinfonietta's live full orchestra debut concert, will feature a 25-piece ensemble and special guests Solea Pfeiffer, Arielle Jacobs, Grammy Award-winner Abigail Barlow (premiering an original song), sandra okuboyejo, Krystina Alabado, Elyse Bell and Kim Blanck. It also features 5 women conductors; Schmidt is joined by Meg Zervoulis (The Prom, Mean Girls), and Cynthia Meng (Company, Hadestown, Suffs), as well as Colleen McCormack (The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Newsies Jr.) and Zarifa Adiba, one of the first two female conductors of Afghanistan.

For more information about The Broadway Sinfonietta, visit https://www.thebroadwaysinfonietta.com/. Click here for more information about tonight's Bryant Park Picnic Performances as part of Carnegie Hall Citywide.

BroadwayWorld spoke with Macy Schmidt about tonight's performance, The Broadway Sinfonietta's impact, and more.

How does it feel for The Broadway Sinfonietta to be a part of Carnegie Hall's CityWide initiative?

We're beyond excited for our first ever live performance as a full orchestra to be presented by Carnegie Hall! My favorite thing about Carnegie Hall Citywide Series is that it's FREE, making it so much more accessible to so many more people, which is very aligned with our mission. After nearly two years of the Sinfonietta working steadily as a recording orchestra throughout the pandemic, it's really exciting to finally get to perform live on this scale with an actual audience.

What can audiences expect from the performance?

What they should NOT expect is any music about romantic love. This set, which I personally curated, is a journey of finding your voice, learning to use it, and helping give a voice to others. It's a celebration of how far women's voices have come and how far they have yet to go. Audiences can expect a range of genres from indie pop to classic Broadway. Audiences can also expect a "Sinfonietta Smash Medley"... audiences are welcome for that one.

What is it like for The Sinfonietta to have the opportunity to work with so many different artists and in so many different facets of entertainment?

It's one of my favorite things about running the Sinfonietta! Musical Theatre is such a uniquely collaborative art form, and while I love a good symphony, it's exciting to me to get to blend so many musical and visual art forms in our work, from instrumentalists to vocalists to videographers and photographers to graphic designers and beyond. I hope we get to do an orchestra + dance piece sometime soon.

The Broadway Sinfonietta is an all-women and majority women-of-color orchestra, how does it feel to be blazing a trail and making an impact in that way?

The most fulfilling part of all of this has been job creation, and I hope we only continue to increase the scale of those jobs as the Sinfonietta grows. Especially as this ensemble was founded at the peak of the pandemic, providing actual employment seemed at the time like the most tangible way to make an impact - and I don't think that's changed in 2022. I hope, now that we are introducing original content to the world, that we can use that to find new ways to make an impact.

What's next for The Broadway Sinfonietta?

Well, as was just announced, I and the Sinfonietta have recently signed to Sony Masterworks to continue putting out recorded music. Our debut single, "You're Gonna Hear From Me," which was the song that started it all, was just released with Solea Pfeiffer reprising her iconic vocal performance of the new arrangement - and there is so much more to come. Tonight's concert marks a big shift for the orchestra into being a headlining artist with our own original content, so I'm excited to continue sharing that with the world. Oh, and expect a foray into the world of crypto very soon.

Do you have anything else you'd like to share?

Yes! You can now stream "You're Gonna Hear From Me," courtesy of Sony Masterworks, on all major streaming platforms, AND you can come hear the Sinfonietta perform live with a full orchestra for the first time tonight in Bryant Park, presented by Carnegie Hall Citywide, at 7pm, free to the public! You can also stream it on Bryant Park's website, YouTube, or Facebook Page.