Experience
UPCOMING: Assistant Music Director, Newsies, Twin Cities Theater Camp, July, 2019.
Music Director, Every(man), St. Paul Academy, November, 2018. Wrote songs from lyrics given in script. Produced backing tracks electronically for performance. Taught and coached actors vocals and instrumentals.
Music Director, The Orphan Train, St. Paul Academy, October, 2018. Taught students songs that were written into the script and coordinated extra music with the director (Ed Williams). Arranged all pre-written music for piano and violin, and wrote additional music for same orchestration. Coached violinist and played piano for all performances.
Music Director, Secret in the Wings, Saint Paul Academy, November, 2017. Taught music to, rehearsed and coached instrumentalists and vocalists, coordinated music with the actors and the director, arranged music to fit the instrumentation available. Maintained the quality of the music throughout the rehearsal process and performances.
Music Director, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Saint Paul Academy, Student Directed Production, September, 2017. Role involved auditioning orchestra and actors, arranging music to fit singers and staging, writing violin part to cover missing reeds and pitch percussion, teaching and coaching vocalists, playing rehearsal piano, conducting orchestra in performances.
Music Intern, Brigadoon, Rosetown Playhouse, 2017. Assisted Music Director (Samantha Laumann) with notes, mark-up music, leading rehearsals, 2017
Awards
Comments about The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee from the Spotlight Awards:
Excellent work! William Finn writes difficult music and you all executed the orchestrations with precision quality and emphasis. I also appreciated the orchestra being onstage — it added to the “improv” aspect to the show and allowed you to interact with the cast members. You sounded wonderful! A small, but mighty orchestra! I am so impressed with the quality. Great job keeping in sync with the cast, and the sound was very balanced as well.
YES to a student music director as well as a student conductor! I loved watching JJ at work.
Musically this is not an easy piece, and it was fun to see the students involved take it on head first!
Spotlight Education Honors
Spotlight honors high school musicals and students by formally recognizing the extraordinary achievements and process of developing the young artists, onstage and offstage, in Minnesota’s high school musical theatre programs. Through the Hennepin Theater Trust.
- Honorable Mention for Technical Achievement (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, 2017)
- Honorable Mention for a Student Orchestra (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, 2017)
- Honorable Mention for an Overall Performance (The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, 2017)
Music Notation Software
Proficient with Finale, Notion, Musescore.
JJ Gisselquist 