Profile: Finding a Way
Musician Kurt Crowley ’02 and more than 100 others collaborate on Bolero Julliard, a celebration of what artists can accomplish at home together.
Jana F. Brown
When Broadway went dark on March 12, 2020, a central light of New York City’s artistic creativity was extinguished. But artists have proven in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic that their creative sparks cannot be suppressed for long. Among those who have stepped forward to contribute to artistry and entertainment at a time when it is desperately needed is Kurt Crowley ’02. Until recently, Crowley served for five years as music director and conductor of the Broadway smash hit Hamilton. He left the position in January to help coordinate casting for the inter- national version of Hamilton in Australia and to serve as an executive music producer for Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Netflix directorial debut Tick, Tick…Boom.
With everything on hold, Crowley found himself confined to his New York City apartment, looking for a way to keep his mind occupied. That same week, he was contacted by his friend Damian Woetzel, president of The Juilliard School. Woetzel asked Crowley to come on board as music producer for a video project that would feature more than 80 of the school’s student dancers, musicians, and actors, plus almost two dozen well-known alumni. Crowley said yes and the following day was on a Zoom call with a team of artists to discuss the choreography and the scope of the musical arrangement. Rehearsals – also via Zoom – began almost immediately.
“In terms of having a way of contributing, I am not a healthcare worker or an essential service provider,” says Crowley, who returned to SPS in May 2019 as a Conroy Visitor. “My way of contributing is to help people smile or feel connected in some way. We artists are harnessing our skills in a slightly different way and still finding a way to get the art out there.”
After about two months of hard work, constant collaborative Zoom calls, and a handful of drafts, The Juilliard School released its nearly 10-minute production on April 30. Bolero Juilliard (youtu.be/rqzkn-jX-JU) was created to answer this essential question: “What can we do together even while we are alone?” The completed video, coordinated by Crowley and Larry Keigwin (director and choreographer), Nicole Wolcott (associate director and associate choreographer), and David Robertson (conductor), put together a cohesive dance performance from hundreds of separate video and audio clips of varying quality submitted by the participants.
Those participants included 13 student dancers, eight drama students, 52 members of the Juilliard Orchestra, eight from Juilliard Jazz, and five student vocalists. Among the alumni involved were actors Laura Linney, Christine Baranski, Patti LuPone, and Bradley Whitford; cellist Yo-Yo Ma; violinist Itzhak Perlman; and pianists Emanuel Ax and Jon Batiste. At Robertson’s suggestion, the piece was performed to Ravel’s “Bolero,” featuring excerpts from Beethoven’s “Como la mariposa soy: Tempo di Bolero” and Chopin’s “Bolero, Op. 19.”
“I took his suggestions and proposed the structure of the piece, the exact length, where cuts would be made,” explains Crowley. “I looked at a map of choreography, and the overall arc of the dancers moving from the inside to outside, from isolation to collectivism, from angst to celebration. I mapped out where to use jazz instruments, where to use certain solos, and turned it back over to Joe Soucy, who coordinates the orchestra. He went through the instrumental parts and where the oboes and clarinets would record which bars, etc. My contribution was sketching the full musical structure and making a full score.”
In the process of collaboration, Crowley found himself coordinating with sound engineer Jim Bilodeau, on a Zoom call with renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma, and FaceTiming with pianist and bandleader Jon Batiste.
“Jim and I collaborated very closely in setting out mile markers,” says Crowley. “It was like a jigsaw puzzle, with 100 pieces dropped in his lap. I gave him the picture so he knew where the pieces all went.” In the completed video, students and alumni are shown putting on make-up, dancing in their kitchens, brushing their teeth, crawling down the stairs, and, finally, exiting their homes. The performance features the angst of confinement and gradually progresses to venturing outside to liberate themselves. For Crowley, the Juilliard project represents what he has been living as a musician accustomed to live performance and now forced to find alternate ways to release his creativity. He and a colleague from Hamilton have also been collaborating on their weekly SNOB (Saturday Night on Broadway) skits, typically broadcast live for cast and crew of the show’s performances but now taking the shape of 90-second weekly videos. He says he is learning new skills around at-home music production and has also collaborated with Rent cast members on a video released May 4.
“We can’t last like this without producing good art, so people are finding ways to bring entertainment to people at home,” says Crowley. “It’s important to use our skills not just to make people smile, but to raise money for food banks and front line workers. I think these projects are going to keep developing. The Broadway community and musicians’ union are trying to figure out what the industry will look like in the future – and it’s evolving by the week.”