MusiCoLab's New Executive Director
Meet Charlie Gilbert
Charlie Gilbert is a composer, writer and educator who has taught, written, composed, directed, conducted and played for musicals in Philadelphia since the 1980’s. Among his best known works for the musical stage is the 1979 musical Assassins, source of the idea for the Tony Award-winning musical of the same name by Stephen Sondheim and John Weidman; he directed the Philly premiere of Sondheim’s Assassins at Philadelphia Area Repertory Theatre in 1992. Other works seen on Philly stages include Gemini the Musical (with Albert Innaurato, commissioned by the Prince Music Theater), Leading Lady(the story of Philly’s own Mae Desmond, book by P. Seth Bauer), Watch the Birdie (Philly Music Theater Works, Walnut Street Studio), and Harold and the Purple Crayon (one of the many scores he created as Composer in Residence for Enchantment Theatre Company). He joined the faculty of the University of the Arts in 1990 to start their BFA training program for musical theater performers, which had a strong focus on new musicals from its earliest days. He helmed that program for nearly twenty years, training some of the best known performers on Philly and national stages, before being asked to serve as Director of the Ira Brind School of Theater Arts at UArts in 2008. His book The SAVI Singing Actor documents the innovative pedagogy he developed during his years at UArts. He retired from full-time teaching in 2021 and currently holds the rank of Professor Emeritus. www.chasgilbert.com, www.savisingingactor.com
