Jason Robert Brown

Born in Tarrytown, New York, in 1970, Jason Robert Brown works across multiple roles as composer, conductor, arranger, lyricist, singer, and pianist. Training at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, preceded his entry into New York City’s musical theater world during the early 1990s, an environment in which he set out to fuse pop and rock influences with Broadway’s longstanding conventions. Songs for a New World, his debut musical, reached the stage in 1995. Working alongside Alfred Uhry, Brown crafted Parade, a work drawn from the trial and lynching of Leo Frank; the show opened at Lincoln Center Theatre in 1998 and brought him the Tony Award for Best Musical Score. The Last Five Years arrived next, receiving its production in 2002. Incidental music for various New York stage works forms part of Brown’s output, as do several songs contributed to the ill-fated Broadway staging of Urban Cowboy. He has additionally supplied orchestral and arrangement contributions to Liza Minelli, Laurie Beechman, Tovah Feldshuh, Yoko Ono, and the vocal group the Tonics. Lauren Kennedy issued an album of his material, Songs of Jason Robert Brown, in 2003. Sh-K-Boom Records, in conjunction with Ghostlight and Razor & Tie, released Brown’s first solo album, Wearing Someone Else’s Clothes, in 2005. An accomplished pianist and performer, he continues to appear regularly with his two-man band the Caucasian Rhythm Kings. Brown is married to fellow composer Georgia Stitt.