Click on the titles to read PDF versions of my work. There are SoundCloud links and videos below the samples. Samples of my editing work are available upon request.
Lyrics:
Stillness This is one of the songs from my song cycle about ballet, Turn Out. It’s from the perspective of a late-career professional ballerina.
I Fade Away Composer, Edison Hong, and I wrote a full-length musical called Second Place, and this is a song from that show. It comes mid-way through the piece, when the protagonist is feeling confused about the lack of passion she feels for her job.
Dance Little One This is another song from my song cycle, Turn Out. This was the first song I wrote for it, actually. It’s about an ex-dancer remembering her childhood teacher.
La Crème de la Crème I wanted to see if I could musicalize one of my favorite novels, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, and this lyric is a result of that. I don’t have the rights to the novel; it was just an exercise to see if the piece was musicalize-able.
Scenes:
Marie and the Grand Concourse I wrote this scene with composer Edison Hong. It is a short reflection on how a little girl begins to comprehend what it means to be a woman in 1930s New York.
Jellybeans This is a short scene of escalating action.
Sacrifice I wrote this with composer Peter Hodgson. We re-interpreted the Inuit myth of Sedna the sea god.
Excerpts:
Excerpt of Baguette This is the first half of a twenty-minute piece I wrote with composer Aferdian Stephens. It’s a musical created around one word: frivolous.
Excerpt of Second Place This is the first twenty pages of the full-length piece I wrote with Edison Hong. The musical is about an overly-ambitious chef who doesn’t make it to the top of her field and has to come to terms with herself as a person she never thought she’d be.
Audio:
Here’s my SoundCloud:
Video:
This is Patty Nieman singing “Plié” at a cabaret at NYU. Music and lyrics by me.
This is Olivia Wendel, Ben Liebert, John Blaylock, and Patty Nieman singing “Time Stands Still” from a Second Place, book and lyrics by me, music by Edison Hong.