Harry Castle

Harry Castle is a British composer, lyricist and music director. He works at the intersection of musical theatre, contemporary classical, pop and jazz genres, and writes music as frequently at home in concert halls as it is in bars. Harry is particularly drawn to musical storytelling, and is especially interested in work that centers queer and marginalized narratives.

Before joining the faculty at Boston University, Harry was Visiting Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre & Associate Music Director at Syracuse University, and was on Collaborative Piano and Theory staff in the University of Michigan’s Musical Theatre and Theory departments. He has music directed a wide range of titles, and particularly enjoys putting together both new work and forgotten shows. As a vocalist, Harry has toured on four continents, singing everything from Machaut to Tchaikovsky to Sondheim to Whitney Houston, in more than 11 languages. Some highlights include: Britten’s Rejoice in the Lamb in the Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris, Haydn’s Nelson Mass in the Temppeliaukion Kirkko in Helsinki, Handel’s Messiah with Apollo’s Fire across the Midwest, and singing a medley of Berry Gordy hits to the composer in front of 80,000 people at the Big House in Ann Arbor. Harry has presented his research on drag in musical theatre at the annual conference of the American Musicological Society, and has written several articles on the experiential nature of groove.

Theatre and film composition work includes: State of Motion (Syracuse University Drama Department workshop), Isn’t It Queer? (University of Michigan Musical Theatre Department), The Hunt (direct to radio), Barely Recognizable (Flickers’ Rhode Island International Film Festival, Yale in Hollywood Film Festival Special Jury Prize), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Westminster Old Hall), LUCKY (Edinburgh Festival Fringe), Eurydice (by Sarah Ruhl), ALICE (Edinburgh Festival Fringe).

Harry’s music has been heard at the BBC Proms, the New World Symphony, the Rhode Island International Film Festival, the National Centre for Early Music and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, and has been performed by Eleni Katz, the University of Michigan Chamber Choir, the Marea Duo, the Albatross Duo, Margaret Lancaster, the Yale Symphony Orchestra, the Da Capo Chamber Players, the English Cornett & Sackbut Ensemble, and chamber ensembles of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Aurora Orchestra. Awards include: Brehm Prize for Choral Composition, Made at the Red House Residency (Wild Plum Arts/Britten-Pears Foundation), BBC Proms Young Composer of the Year, Clare College Carol Competition, Outstanding Arrangement Award (International Competition of Collegiate A Cappella), Paul Mellon Fellowship (Mellon Foundation). In addition, he has been a finalist at the Ivors Classical Awards, the Making Music Awards, the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards, and for the Marion Brown Prize, the Zodiac International Music Competition, and the National Centre for Early Music Young Composers’ Award.

Harry holds a BA in Music from Clare College, University of Cambridge, an MA in Composition, Theory and Musical Theatre Writing from Yale University (studying with Jeanine Tesori, Scott Frankel, Kathryn Alexander & Konrad Kaczmarek), and a DMA in Composition from the University of Michigan, where his mentors included Evan Chambers, Roshanne Etezady, Lynne Shankel and Kristin Kuster. Harry’s music is published by North Star Music and Murphy Music Press, and can be found in the Kurt Weill Foundation’s Lotte Lenya Songbook. He is a proud member of the Dramatists Guild, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, the Performing Rights Society and the American Musicological Society.

You can find out more about Harry and his work by visiting his website: www.harry–castle.com