Tony Asaro

Tony Asaro is the recipient of the Anna Sosenko Assist Trust Award for 2008 for songwriting. Tony received his MFA in musical theatre writing from NYU, and subsequently became a lecturer in the graduate musical theatre writing program. He teaches voice at Front and Center studio in Springfield, N.J., and teaches lyric writing workshops in New York City public schools through the Johnny Mercer Foundation. Tony received his undergraduate degree from Santa Clara University in 1998 in theatre and music. At Santa Clara, Tony studied composition with Lynn Shurtleff. Tony served as assistant music director for TheatreWorks' production of Pacific Overtures, and as vocal director for Santa Clara University’s production of Kiss Me Kate in 2004. Tony’s musical Our Country (with Dan Collins) received its world premiere in June of 2009 through the Planet Connections Theatre Festivity. Our Country won four Planet Connections awards, including Outstanding Overall Production of a Musical, and Outstanding Book, Music & Lyrics of a Musical. It was subsequently published in the 2010: Plays and Playwrights anthology of new plays published by NYTE Small Press, and enjoyed a successful run in NYMF in 2010. The concept album for Our Country is currently being recorded and is scheduled to be released in May. 2012. Tony wrote the libretto for Such Beautiful Things a new oratorio based on the Brothers Grimm fable The Travelling Musician (Jeff Parola, composer). Such Beautiful Things was performed by the NYC based choir, Choral Chameleon in April, 2010. He also wrote libretti for two operas: Cycle (Clint Borzoni, composer) and All Wounds Bleed (Christopher Cerrone, composer). Both one-act operas were commissioned by American Lyric Theatre as part of their Composer/Librettist Development Program in which Tony participated in 2011. All Wounds Bleed was selected as one of the four pieces to receive a reading in Opera America’s New Works Forum in New York City later this fall. Tony's first musical, Family, a collaboration with Dr. Barbara Means Fraser for which he wrote music and co-wrote lyrics, has enjoyed two productions–one at SCU in 1999 and one at the Ryan Repertory Theatre in New York City in 2000. Tony’s other musicals include Women of Colors (various collaborators), The Many, Many Men of Tony Asaro, Broken (with Kevin Cummines) Going Nowhere, and The Man Who Owned the Sky. Tony’s songs have been heard in cabarets at Barrington Stages, Goodspeed Opera House, and various venues in New York City and across the country.