New Musical Writers to Watch

[macbeth]

Posted: 2/1/26 at 5:19pm

I'm trying to flesh out my listening - are there any good sites or pages here I'm missing that track up and coming composers? Maybe with demos? 

Or, any good recommendations on who I should be listening to? 

[Chaz Hands]

Posted: 2/1/26 at 8:17pm

Zoe Sarnak feels VERY close to breaking out if any of her shows in development make it to Broadway.

Recent shows of her include: Galileo, Empire Records, Afterwords, The Lonely Few, etc.

[Hey, Zelda!]

Posted: 2/1/26 at 8:45pm

Chaz Hands said: "Zoe Sarnak feels VERY close to breaking out if any of her shows in development make it to Broadway.

Recent shows of her include: Galileo, Empire Records, Afterwords, The Lonely Few, etc."

Add Particle Fever to that list, co-written with Bear "Battlestar Galactica" McCreary.

[Voter]

Posted: 2/2/26 at 3:17am

A good place to start is checking out the winners of various awards and grants for theater composers. Richard Rodgers Awards, and Jonathan Larson Grants are two of the major ones. NAMT and DGF have similar grants. There are a few others.

[Fan123]

Posted: 2/2/26 at 5:13am

Julia Riew also seems ready to blow up, if indeed she isn't blowing up already. Social media virality, ART/Diane Paulus development of one show, South Korean development of another show, YA book deals...

https://juliariew.com/projects/

[Ke3]

Posted: 2/2/26 at 1:09pm

not sure how close he is to “breaking out” (if we assume breaking out mean a show on Broadway) but I really like Billy Reece’s work. 

[Voter]

Posted: 2/2/26 at 1:35pm

to me, Broadway is the only real way to "break out" in terms of visibility beyond the industry to fans at large, but getting to Broadway is an impossible feat many very talented composers never reach. I could name countless talented working composers who have yet to be produced on Broadway. So, I would say it's a poor metric to use.

[DooWahDiddy]

Posted: 2/2/26 at 5:02pm

I'm not really pursuing it much anymore, but I released an album in 2016 (oof, 10 years ago) that featured lots of wonderful Broadway singers, including Michael Cerveris, Natalie Weiss, and Loren Allred. Most of the songs were later used in my musical Charlie Ryder, so these are kind of pop renditions of those songs. It's on Spotify and iTunes, if you'd care to check it out!

Spotify
iTunes

[macbeth]

Posted: 2/12/26 at 9:49am

Are there any good spotify playlists?

[Hey, Zelda!]

Posted: 2/12/26 at 7:43pm

She's been pretty active for the last decade-plus up in her native Canada, I gather, but I'm putting in a good word for Britta Johnson. I thought her "Life After" (at the Goodman in Chicago) was exquisite, and I've listened to a short promo for "Kelly v. Kelly" more than one would consider healthy.