New Music Theatre Project Reveals Three New Commissions

New Music Theatre Project has announced their 2023 commissions: a new music theatre piece by Erika Ji, a new opera by Noah Magnus, and as part of the new Future Voices Series, 14-year old composer Gabriel Gurevich will write a new musical. They will all be developed over the course of a one to two year period with world premieres anticipated by the end of 2024 and early 2025.

New Music Theatre Project announces three new commissions: Quartet Project, a new music/theatre piece by composer Erika Ji which explores the intersection of instrumental ensembles with the human voice, The Mouse., a new opera that explores the human interaction with animals that occurs in an urban landscape, and Lost (and found) in New York, a new musical written by Gabriel Gurevich as part of NMTP's new Future Voices series, where young talents in New York are given their first professional commissions.

In Quartet Project, composer Erika Ji will explore the intersection of the traditional quartet with the human voice. Perfectly aligned with New Music Theatre Project's mission, Ji will investigate where the instrumental ensemble converges with vocal ensemble.

In The Mouse., city dwellers of different species (humans and animals alike) collide in a story of day-to-day metropolitan life. Composer and librettist Noah Magnus aims to confound and titillate in this by turns tragic and hilarious chamber opera. He asks us: are some animals just supposed to die? What happens when you give a squirrel a cheese stick? Why do some seemingly odd people find love faster than others? And truly, who ARE the animals?

In Gabriel Gurevich's new musical Lost (and found) in New York, we meet a bright and eager child who yearns to explore the city they call their own. With two loving yet distracted parents, it's been difficult to really break free... but when a mishap occurs and the child becomes lost in New York, they encounter all the magic, adventure and danger that the city can provide. Meanwhile the unaware parents, on the other side of the city, have their own problems to solve. Ultimately a story about growing up, Gurevich will have you singing "everything's an art form in this city!".

Erika Ji is a cross-genre composer-storyteller whose work has been featured Off-Broadway and around the world at Lincoln Center, The Public Theater, and Rattlestick Playwrights Theater. Current & recent projects include Yoko's Husband's Killer's Japanese Wife, Gloria (5th Avenue Theatre Commission 2021, Civilians R&D Group 2022, NAMT Grant 2023, Orchard Project 2023, O'Neill NMTC 2023, NAMT Festival 2023), VISARE (New Voices Winner 2021, Vivace Award Nomination 2021), Starsong (Rattlestick 2021, Sound Bites 2023), [untitled hat project] (NYFA Grant 2021), and music direction for new works like Virgin's ship-wide immersive experience Scarlet Night. As a conductor, pianist, and vocalist, Erika has performed on national TV for CBS Sunday Morning, on Broadway with Kimberly Akimbo, at the Warfield Theatre in San Francisco, with KHORIKOS at National Sawdust and (le) poisson rouge in New York, and for house concerts across the country. She was a 2022 Johnny Mercer Foundation Songwriter and an MFA fellow at NYU Tisch. The proud daughter of Chinese immigrants, Erika grew up in Palo Alto, studied computer science and philosophy at Stanford University, organized the Viennese Ball in San Francisco, and built products at Dropbox before deciding to follow the music.

Noah Magnus is a Brooklyn-bred composer, lyricist, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and conductor. He earned his undergraduate degree in composition from The Conservatory of Music at Brooklyn College in 2021. Noah is now an award-winning composer, taking on many commissions, projects, and collaborations, from chamber opera to Jazz big band concertos to experimental solo music. He is currently attending Butler University in Indianapolis, studying with Dr. Michael Schelle. He has previously studied with Dr. Dalit Warshaw, Polina Nazaykinskaya, and Dr. Douglas Cohen.

Gabriel (Elle) Gurevich has been a musician for as long as she can remember, singing and staging musical numbers on playdates as a toddler, even before starting piano and dance lessons at 5. Now 14, she has composed a piano sonata, a song cycle, a fantasie for four hands, and most recently a series of three etudes dedicated to her piano teacher, Irina Nuzova, and premiered at the MAYA Foundation Music Festival in Montreaux, Switzerland. Lost (And Found) In New York is Elle's first foray into musical theater. It is inspired both by her love of wandering around New York City and her own search for her identity. Elle has appeared on stage and on screen. She won accolades and rave reviews for her solo role in Marnie at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. Her screen credits include a guest star appearance in HBO's High Maintenance (Season 3) and in CW's Supergirl (Season 4), a supporting role in Marvel's Wandavision, and the lead role in Metronome (In Time), a short film that premiered in 2019 at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Elle is also an accomplished pianist and performer. Most recently, she won the Grand Prize at the Young Pianist Competition of New Jersey and has previously performed solo in Merkin Hall and Weill Hall (Carnegie Hall) in New York. Elle is a student at the Special Music High School. She studies composition with Richard Danielpour and Konstantin Sukhovetski, and piano with Irina Nuzova.

New Music Theatre Project (Chris Dieman, Artistic Director) invests in developing work that explores the traditional and innovative ways in which music and theatre play together. We focus on commissioning and co-producing new music and theatre works based off of completely original ideas, and workshopping them through an intensive development process.

NMTP commissions new works of music and theatre that are boldly original. In a time when most new commercial pieces of theatre are sourced from movies or other existing IP, and music is focused on revival, we are determined to seek out the most original corridors for these art forms. We give our artists the time, space and expertise to fully develop a framework for creating original work, and then assist them in developing and executing their project. We focus on commissioning new works, both theatre brought to life by music, and music in which theatricality is a central component.

Photo Credit: Erika Ji (photo by David Noles) and Gabriel Gurevich (photo by Mark Gurevich)