Leslie Stifelman, music director and conductor of Chicago: The Musical, the longest running American musical in Broadway history, introduces us to Peruvian star Marco Zunino, who recently made his Broadway debut as Billy Flynn.
This is the first in a series of videos where she takes you behind the scenes to meet cast members of hit Broadway shows. Join Leslie, Tony Award–winning actor Roger Rees, and some of Broadway’s brightest talents in the Musical Theater Project on Carnegie Hall's Musical Exchange online community.
By Leslie Stifelman
To connect music students from different nations through interactive technology has been a dream of mine since 2006. At the time I was the executive producer for the HBO documentary series The Music In Me, a show that revealed the overwhelming range and breadth of how music gives shape and meaning to children’s lives. This was before YouTube, if you can remember that, and we were shocked by the hundreds of kids who submitted homemade video tapes by mail, all wanting to share their passion for music.
I was thrilled when the Carnegie Hall's Weill Music Institute invited me to be a lead
teaching artist on Musical Exchange. Through this
network I will give interactive classes online, as well as use my
creativity to find new ways to engage student learning and musical activity. As the music director and conductor for Chicago: The Musical, I have been afforded the
opportunity to work with an international company of wonderful actors, singers, and
dancers as well as get to know many others throughout the Broadway community.
As the song says, “Thereʼs no people like show people,” and my generous colleagues
have jumped at the opportunity to share their knowledge and experience with our
online community.
That's why I've created this series of videos, to give a new audience an up-close
and personal connection to their Broadway idols. Already on Musical Exchange, I've heard from many of our
students expressing an overwhelming desire to be on
Broadway someday. What better way for students to learn than through the example
of others who have already made their dreams come true.