Joseph Church is an award-winning conductor, composer, lyricist, arranger, pianist, and professor of music. His career has been as varied as it has been exciting, working with some of music’s and the theater's most remarkable talents, collaborating with musicians, performers, and technicians around the globe, and guiding some of the entertainment world's most promising talent. His joy in music has never waned, and he is actively involved in the struggle to preserve live music performance and to perpetuate music as an essential part of our education and culture.
Joseph is perhaps best known for his music direction and arrangements for two groundbreaking Broadway musicals, The Lion King and The Who’s Tommy. He was the music director of The Lion King on Broadway from its opening in 1997 until 2003, and during that time was the music supervisor for the New York, London, Toronto, Tokyo, Osaka, and Los Angeles productions. Mr. Church served as music supervisor, conductor, and vocal arranger of The Who's Tommy on Broadway. He was the music director of the original production at La Jolla Playhouse, for which he won the Los Angeles Drama-Logue award for music direction, and was the music supervisor for the London, Toronto, Germany, and national touring companies of the show. Also with Julie Taymor, he was vocal director of the Broadway production of The Green Bird. Other work as music director and conductor for the stage includes Broadway’s Amazing Grace, In The Heights, Sister Act, the original Off-Broadway and National Touring companies of Little Shop Of Horrors, Randy Newman's Faust, and two seasons as music director at Radio City Music Hall’s Christmas Spectacular. Joseph was also conductor and music director for the Grammy®-winning cast albums of The Lion King and Tommy. His guest conducting includes appearances with the Gubbio Festival Opera and the Giuseppe Verdi Society Chorus and Orchestra in Umbria, Italy, the Long Island Philharmonic, the chamber orchestra Music for A Sunday Afternoon, and the Westchester Symphony. He was music director of the New York University Symphony in 2005, and has also served as assistant conductor of the Brooklyn Philharmonia Chorus and the Gubbio Festival Orchestra.
Joseph’s work as a composer spans multiple genres from popular songwriting to musical theatre to serious music. He is currently the composer/lyricist on two theatrical projects, Who Is Jimmy Pants?, a satire of jukebox musicals soon to open Off-Broadway, and Music of the City, a concept album/stage revue of song and dance inspired by modern urban life, currently in development. His concert music includes, in collaboration with legendary librettist/librettist Sheldon Harnick, a setting of three of Jean de la Fontaine's Les Fables for chorus and orchestra. The first two sections, “The Lion In Love” and “The Peacock Who Complained To Juno,” were recorded featuring soloists Brian Stokes Mitchell, Howard McGillin, Rebecca Luker, Mary Testa, and Stanley Bahorek. The third piece, "The Tortoise and the Two Ducks," received its world premiere with the NYU Symphony Orchestra in May 2017 and won an American Prize for Composition Award in 2018. His epic stage musical, The Thief, written in collaboration with iconic Russian composer Vladimir Shainskiy, was premiered at the El Portal Theater in Los Angeles in 2007. His Reel and Rondo from "As You Like It" was premiered on New Year's Eve, 2000, by the Long Island Philharmonic, and his Shainskiy Suite, based on themes by Shainskiy, was premiered at Carnegie-Weil Hall in April 2005. For television, Joseph composed the theme music for the PBS series Character Studies. He has been composer-in-residence at New York's Riverside Shakespeare Company and the Manhattan Repertory Theatre, and in all has written incidental music for over thirty plays, including Richard III, As You Like It, The Tempest, Antigone, Anna Christie, and The Rainmaker. He began his career as a composer for musical theater in 1981, composing the score for one of Off-Broadway's most infamous flops, An Evening With Joan Crawford. Other musicals include Pest Control (Noho Arts Theater, 2009), Fry Canyon Pop. 2, and The Evil Of Two Lessers.
As an arranger and orchestrator, most recently Joseph created new orchestrations for The Rothschilds (Rothschild & Sons) at the York Theatre Company and Richard Rodgers and Sheldon Harnick’s Rex (Utah Festival of Opera and Musical Theatre). Other orchestrations and arrangements include Bruce Vilanch and Richard Robin’s jukebox musical A Sign of the Times, presented at Goodspeed Musicals and the Delaware Theatre Company, The 60's Project, directed by Richard Maltby, also at Goodspeed, a modern adaptation of Gilbert and Sullivan's The Gondoliers, commissioned by the Roundabout Theater Company, the epic Korean musical Another Sun, songs for Lauryn Hill and the songwriting team of Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil, Gershwin's Fascinating Rhythm on Broadway, Steven Lutvak’s Almost September, and many other stage productions and recordings.
In 1996, Joseph received a doctorate in composition from New York University, where he has taught songwriting, composition, conducting, collaborative piano, and musical theatre performance ever since. His students have gone on to successful careers as performers, composers and music directors in theater, film, and universities around the country. He holds a Master's degree in choral conducting from the University of Illinois and a B.A. in music from Swarthmore College. He has has studied conducting with Paul Vermel, Tamara Brooks, and Harold Decker, composition with Menachem Zur and Todd Brief, and piano with Steven Lubin, Edward Murray, and Richard Veleta. Joseph is the author of two books, Music Direction for the Stage: A View from the Podium and Rock in the Musical theatre: A Guide for Singers, both published by Oxford University Press. www.churchmuse.com, viewfromthepodium.com.
Joseph Church
Curriculum Vitae
Education:
Doctor of Arts, 1996, Composition, New York University.
M. Mus., 1980, Choral Conducting, University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana (Minor: Voice).
B.A., Swarthmore College, 1978. Major: Music.
Academic Positions:
Adjunct Associate Professor of Music and Resident Artist (Composition, Songwriting, Conducting, Musical Theatre Performance, and Collaborative Piano), New York University-Steinhardt, 1995-date.
Co-Director of the Musical Theater Program, New York University, 1996-1998.
Guest Lecturer, International University of Beijing, 2017.
Guest Lecturer, San Francisco State University, 2017.
Guest Lecturer, Columbia College of Chicago, 2016.
Guest Lecturer, Stagedoor Access, and Judge, NATS, New York and Orlando, FL, 2012.
Guest Lecturer, MK Productions Musical Theater Workshops, Taipei, Taiwan, 2011.
Professional Music Direction (highlights):
The Lion King (Music Director/Conductor and Music Supervisor: New Amsterdam Theatre, Broadway; Music Supervisor: Tokyo, Osaka, London, Toronto), 1997-2005.
The Who's Tommy (Music Director/Conductor and Music Supervisor, Arranger, Vocal Arranger: St. James Theatre, Broadway, La Jolla Playhouse, California; Music Supervisor: London, Toronto, and Frankfurt), 1992-96.
Amazing Grace (Music Director, Arranger, Incidental Music), Nederlander Theater, Broadway, Bank Of America Theatre, Chicago, 2014-15.
In The Heights (Associate Conductor), Richard Rodgers Theatre, Broadway, 2009-2011.
Sister Act (Assistant Conductor), Broadway Theater, 2012.
A Sign of the Times (Music Supervisor/Orchestrator), Goodspeed Opera House, Delaware Theatre Company, Off Broadway (New World Stages), 2015-2024.
The Capeman (Associate Music Director), Public Theater at the Delacorte, New York 2010.
The Green Bird (Vocal Director), Cort Theater, Broadway, 2001.
Randy Newman's Faust (Music Director/Conductor), La Jolla Playhouse, California; Goodman Theatre, Chicago; Lincoln Center/American Place Theatre, New York), 1994-97.
Radio City Music Hall's Christmas Spectacular (Music Director/Conductor), 1988-90.
Little Shop Of Horrors (Music Director: National tour, Conductor: Off-Broadway), 1983-87.
Compositions (highlights; full listing and demos on request):
Oasis for flute and piano, premiered 2022, recorded 2025.
What Went Wrong for string quintet and five percussionists, premiered 2019, New York University Percussion Ensemble.
Les Fables, or, The Fountain Of Wisdom (three theatrical concert works for chorus, soloists, and orchestra; Sheldon Harnick, librettist), 2006-2017. (American Prize for Composition, Light Classical division)
Shainskiy Suite, premiered 2005, Alaria Chamber Ensemble, Carnegie-Weil Hall.
Theatrical music:
Music of the City, 2023-24, revue, in development.
Who Is Jimmy Pants?, 2024-25 York Theatre, New York..
The Thief, El Portal Theater, Los Angeles, 2007.
The Evil of Two Lessers, Off-Broadway musical, 1986.
An Evening with Joan Crawford, Off-Broadway musical, 1981.
Composer-in-residence, Riverside Shakespeare Company, New York (1982-87).
Composer-in-residence, Manhattan Repertory Theatre, New York (1981-84).
Orchestrations and arrangements (highlights):
The Who’s Tommy (arranger), La Jolla Playhouse/Broadway/International 1992-95; Broadway 2024.
A Sign of the Times (Arranger/Orchestrator), Goodspeed Opera House, Delaware Theatre Company, Off Broadway (New World Stages), 2015-2024.
Rothschild & Sons (orchestrator), York Theatre Company, 2015.
Rex (orchestrator), Utah Festival Opera Theatre, 2017.
The 60s Project (orchestrator), Goodspeed Opera House, 2006.
The Gondoliers (arranger/orchestrator), Roundabout Theater Company, 2002-2003.
Conducting (highlights):
New York University Symphony, Guest Conductor, 2005, 2015, 2018.
Resident Conductor, Amalfi Virtuosi, 2005-09.
Long Island Philharmonic, Guest Conductor, 2000.
Gubbio (Italy) Festival Opera (Conductor), Gubbio Festival Orchestra (Ass’t. Conductor) 1991.
Giuseppe Verdi Society Chorus and Orchestra, Italy (Conductor), 1991.
Brooklyn Philharmonia Chorus (Assistant Conductor), 1981-84
Recordings (selected):
The Lion King (Music Director/Conductor), original cast recording (Grammy Award) 1998.
The Lion King Japan (Music director, Co-Producer), 1999.
The Who’s Tommy (Music Director/Conductor), original cast album (Grammy Award), 1993.
Rothschild and Sons, original cast album, 2016 (Orchestrator).
Publications:
Music Direction for the Stage: A View from the Podium. Oxford University Press, 2015.
Rock in the Musical Theatre: A Guide for Singers. Oxford University Press, 2019.
Television Appearances:
Tony Awards, 1994, 1998.
The Late Show with David Letterman, 1997.
The Rosie O’Donnell Show, 1997, 1998.
The Today Show, 1994, 1997, 1999.
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, 1993, 1998.
Theatre Talk, guest, 1993, 1997.
The Music of Richard Rodgers (PBS documentary), accompanist, 1995.
Awards:
American Music Award, “Light Classical Music” category, “The Tortoise and the Two Ducks,” 2019.
Music Director and Conductor of two Grammy-winning original cast albums: The Lion King (1998, Mark Mancina, producer) and The Who’s Tommy (1993, George Martin, producer)
Drama-Logue Award, Best Music Direction, The Who’s Tommy, La Jolla Playhouse (1992).
ASCAP Composition Awards (1994, 1995, 1999, 2015).