Michael Korie

MICHAEL KORIE received The Marc Blitzstein Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for his lyrics in musicals and his librettos in operas. For musical theater, he collaborated with Tom Kitt and James Lapine on FLYING OVER SUNSET, premiered at Lincoln Center Theater, and received a Tony Award nomination for best score. Korie wrote the lyrics to composer Scott Frankel’s music for the Broadway productions of WAR PAINT and GREY GARDENS, with books by Doug Wright; and the Off-Broadway productions of FAR FROM HEAVEN and HAPPINESS. Their shows have been nominated for Tony and Drama Desk Awards, received The Outer Critics Circle Award, and been produced on Broadway, Playwrights Horizons, Lincoln Center Theater, throughout the USA, and internationally. For opera he adapted Steinbeck’s THE GRAPES OF WRATH, composed by Ricky Ian Gordon, with numerous productions in the USA and abroad. This Spring a concert staging will be presented at Carnegie Hall. Also with Gordon, THE GARDEN OF THE FINZI-CONTINIS premiered this past season at New York City Opera and National Yiddish Folksbiene-Theatre. A concert version premiered in Florence this past Spring, with upcoming productions in Europe. Korie’s original librettos to operas composed by Stewart Wallace include HARVEY MILK, WHERE’S DICK?, KABBALAH, and HOPPER’S WIFE. Last season HARVEY MILK returned in a new version premiered to acclaim at Opera Theater of Saint Louis, and will be seen next year at Opera Parallele in San Francisco. Korie’s operas have been produced at San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Minnesota Opera, New York City Opera, BAM Next Wave Festival, Opera Theater of Saint Louis, Michigan Opera, and abroad in Germany and Australia. Korie’s lyrics have received the Edward Kleban Prize, Jonathan Larson Award, and the ASCAP Richard Rodgers Award. His songs with composer Scott Frankel were featured at Lincoln Center’s American Songbook series at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and at The Kennedy Center’s Millennium Stage Broadway Today. Korie is on the American Theatre Wing Advisory Panel, and co-chairs the Dramatists Guild Opera Committee formed to create more inclusive and equitable collaborations between composers and playwright/librettists. He produced the short film “Credit the Librettist,” featuring interviews with dozens of opera composers and playwrights. For the Dramatist Guild Foundation, Korie chairs the musical theater division of the Fellows Program for emerging musical theater creators. He teaches musical-theater lyric writing at Yale University, and musical book writing at Columbia University School of the Arts, and leads collaboration seminars for opera composers and theater playwrights for both American Opera Project (AOP) and American Lyric Theater.