Kim Sherman - Biography

I went to Lawrence University and received a Bachelor of Music Degree in 1976 with a major in piano performance and a minor in composition. During my time at Lawrence, I also became involved with the theater department and wrote incidental music for several plays including THE GOOD PERSON OF SICHUAN directed by David Feldshuh. After graduation from Lawrence, I went to Santa Barbara, California to study composition, orchestration and opera with Thea Musgrave.

In 1977, I was invited to Minneapolis by The Illusion Theater to create a score for their adaptation of Virginia Woolf’’s ORLANDO.

“A continuing delight is Kim Sherman’s wide-ranging music which playfully follows the epic journey.”
Peter Vaughan, Minneapolis Star & Tribune

I became resident composer with the theater, touring and writing music for all of their productions from 1977 to 1980, including BECOMING MEMORIES, which is published by Samuel French and is still performed regularly. During that time, I also wrote music for other theater companies in Minneapolis and St. Paul, including several productions with Theatre de la Jeune Lune. In 1981, I received an NEA Individual Artist Grant for composition, and also had a concert of my music produced by The Walker Art Center. In 1982, I received a commission award (CCP) from the Minnesota Composers Forum. Two of my chamber orchestra works, SEA CHANGES and THE MOON PIECE were performed by The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra under the baton of William McGlaughlin in 1981 and 1982.

“It was a full palette of sounds: spoken glissandos, voices swooping like seagulls, a sibilant interplay of voices suggestive of wind and waves, the keening of the wind.”
(Sea Changes) Jeanyne Bezioer Slettom, St. Paul Pioneer Press

“The effect is a sensation of tension and mystery, indicating the dramatic yet ruminative quality of the work.”
(The Moon Piece) Jeanyne Bezioer Slettom, St. Paul Pioneer Press

During my six years in Minneapolis, I was awarded two Kudos Awards (Twin Cities critic awards, 1982 and 1983) for my theater scores.

In 1983, I was given an opportunity by Joseph Papp to write a musical for the Public Theater. With my collaborators Scott Killian and Kenneth Robins, I wrote the score for LENNY AND THE HEARTBREAKERS, a musical about Leonardo da Vinci. The production enjoyed a successful sold-out run at the Public Theater in 1983-1984, and I relocated to New York City. Between 1984-1992, I wrote three operas with playwright/librettist Paul Selig which were produced by New Music Theater Ensemble in St. Paul, Minnesota in 1993. THREE VISITATIONS includes LONG ISLAND DREAMER, RED TIDE and LAMENTATIONS.

In 1987, I began an artistic association with director Stan Wojewodski, Jr. when I became an Associate Artist at Center Stage in Baltimore and wrote the scores for Mr. Wojewodski’s productions of HAMLET, THE TEMPEST and ALL’S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. At the Guthrie Theater in Minneapolis, I created the score for Mr. Wojewodski’s production of VOLPONE. When he became the Artistic Director of the Yale Repertory Theater and Dean of the School of Drama in 1990, I joined him there as an Associate Artist and Visiting Lecturer from 1990 to 2000. I developed and taught Music for the Theater: Collaboration for Directors and Composers. For the Yale Repertory Theater, I scored Mr. Wojewodski’s productions of ON THE VERGE OR THE GEOGRAPHY OF YEARNING, EDWARD THE SECOND, HAMLET, AS YOU LIKE IT, and THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO/FIGARO GETS A DIVORCE. Also for the Yale Rep, I scored Liz Diamond’s production of SCHOOL FOR WIVES, Mark Rucker’s production of TWELFTH NIGHT, and Everett Quinton’s production of THE BEAUX STRATEGEM. For the School of Drama I wrote scores for Jonathan Moscone’s production of THE SEAGULL, Timothy Vasen’s production of THE DUCHESS OF MALFI, and James Bundy’s production of THE THREE SISTERS.

I have also composed incidental music for scores of plays in regional theaters throughout the United States including Shakespeare Theater (DC), California Shakespeare Festival, Great Lakes Theater Festival, Dallas Theater Center, Pittsburgh Public Theater, Alabama Shakespeare Festival and The Acting Company. In 1991, I wrote the music for the Broadway hit I HATE HAMLET, written by Paul Rudnick and directed by Michael Engler.

“…to recall the screwy comic style of Barrymore’s Hollywood and Broadway days, the director has added to that nostalgic mood with hokey old-time background music by Kim Sherman.”
Frank Rich, New York Times

In 1989 with playwright Darrah Cloud, I created the score for a music theater adaptation of Willa Cather’s O PIONEERS!,which was premiered by the Huntington Theatre in Boston in 1990. The production, which featured Mary McDonnell as Alexandra, was filmed for American Playhouse and broadcast on PBS in 1990 and 1991. O PIONEERS! has received many subsequent productions including Center Stage in Baltimore, The Pioneer Theater in Utah, and TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, where it won the Bay Area Critics Circle Award for Best Score in 1993. O PIONEERS! is published by Dramatic Publishing. It was performed on tour throughout the United States with The Acting Company in 2000 - 2001, receiving its New York City Premier in May of 2001.

“And in writing the score, Ms. Sherman made an inventive, unexpected choice. She didn’t take the usual route of producing lots of songs for individual characters. There were solos, but they were short. The score concentrated on choral singing, exactly what best expressed a community’s feelings about the land, all those years of hoping and working, and about aging and death. The instrumental music underscored and intensified the story.”
Margo Jefferson, New York Times,

TheatreWorks in Palo Alto produced the second musical I wrote with Ms. Cloud, HONOR SONG FOR CRAZY HORSE, in the spring of 1994. HONOR SONG won the 1994 Frederick Loewe Award, and was presented at New Dramatists in New York. HEARTLAND is our third full-length musical. Developed at New Dramatists, it has been produced by TheatreWorks (Palo Alto), The Goodspeed-at-Chester, Madison Repertory Theater, and Dallas Summer Musicals at the Majestic Theater in Dallas. Susan H. Schulman directed the productions in Madison and Dallas in 2003-2004.

“Heartland… dares to create realistic characters and gives them some great songs to sing – things you can't say about enough Broadway shows these days.”
Lawson Taitte, Dallas Morning News

With Ms. Cloud, I received the 1998 Commendation Award from the Gilman and Gonzalez-Falla Foundation. In 2000 and 2001 our children’s musical THE BOXCAR CHILDREN toured the country with Theatreworks USA.

In 1993, GRAVESIDE a movement from my a cappella oratorio SERVICE FOR THE DEAD IN BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA was recorded by Musica Sacra, Richard Westenberg, conductor, on the CD Of Eternal Light (Catalyst/BMG recording.) The oratorio has been performed by New Music Theater Ensemble in Minneapolis in 1994, Coryton Ensemble in Cleveland in 1995, and by Musica Sacra in New York in 1996. GRAVESIDE continues to be performed regularly by choral groups throughout the United States and Europe.

As the 1994 composer-in-residence with the Lake George Opera Festival, I presented the first act of my opera-in-progress, LOVE’S COMEDY. Also in 1994, I was commissioned by the Mendelssohn Club in Philadelphia to write A WINTER SOLSTICE RITUAL for chorus, organ and percussion. A WINTER SOLSTICE RITUAL was premiered during their 1994 Christmas concert series. I have also been commissioned several times by the Congregational Church in Crystal Lake, Illinois, my hometown. For them I have written a hymn, an anthem, and a solo work for pipe organ.

In 2000, I was awarded a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship. That year, I wrote SONG OF SONGS, for string orchestra, harp and soprano for the San José Chamber Orchestra. SONG OF SONGS premiered in October of 2001, and was conducted by Barbara Day-Turner and sung by Allison Charney.

“The beauty of this piece consists of the rhapsodic nature of Sherman’s spiraling themes, the strong craft and lush scoring…”
Lesley Valdes , San José Mercury News

“Her rendering of each of the seven songs (surrounded by opening and closing songs) is powerfully lyrical and compelling.”
Brent Heisinger, Classical Music Online

In 2004 SONG OF SONGS was published by Roger Deans. In 2002, the Pappoutsakis Foundation commissioned me to write KARNER BLUE for flute and piano. KARNER BLUE, dedicated to an endangered butterfly species, was premiered by Alicia Didonato as part of the annual Pappoutsakis Foundation flute competition at Boston University. Falls House Press published KARNER BLUE in 2003.

I have taught a 3 1/2-week workshop Creating New Musical Theater at The Colorado College every three years since 1997. In 2004, I also taught (at The Colorado College) Broadway Then and Now: A History of the Broadway Musical. And from 1995 to 2000, I spearheaded and ran the first regional chapter of The American Composers Forum in New York City. I regularly teach a few private students in composition and song writing. I am a member of ASCAP from which have won a yearly award since 1984, and since 1998 I have been a volunteer composer for The 52nd Street Project.