SEAN IVY
Composer - Theatre Artist - Music Teacher
PROJECTS
Rita, the Cleaning Lady: A New Musical
In this action-packed, jazzy musical based upon a story by Steven Ullmer, a cleaning lady from the suburbs of Central New Jersey needs money to support herself and her family. She ends up getting that money by cleaning up murder scenes and burying the bodies! The show chronicles a woman's journey to make ends meet.
The show first received its production as Sean's senior composition recital at Rutgers University's Mason Gross School of the Arts. Thinkery & Verse co-produced the event. It was later performed in New Brunswick once again in June 2022 and as part of Brooklyn's BAMTC Showcase in October 2023.
Check out some songs below or see Thinkery & Verse's Rita webpage HERE.
Anansi's Story Festival
In the fall of 2021, Sean worked with ReThink Theatrical as a member of their Creative Team on a project called Anansi's Story Festival. Anansi is an Akan folktale character that weaves stories together as a spider, and the prompt from the theatre company was to create a story that weaved tales from around the world. The team crafted a play in which a sun god and river god debated on whether to flood the world, and called on Anansi for help. Anansi and the performers told stories from Latin America, Eastern Europe, and New Jersey. Sean created incidental music and songs for the show.
Thou Shalt Not
In 1922, Edward Hall and Eleanor Mills were murdered in a double homicide that received national atention. He was a pastor at St. John the Evangelist Church in New Brunswick, NJ, and she was a singer in the choir. They were having an affair, and their murder was never solved. In 2019, Thinkery & Verse premiered a site-specific play called Thou Shalt Not in St. John's church itself, told from the perspective of Eleanor's daughter, Charlotte. Sean designed music, music directed, and performed in the production. The unique combination of death, 1920s, media frenzy, and church allowed them to create a unique soundscape of carnival music, 1920s music, hymns, and general introspective chaos that reached into contemporary electronic music. The production has also been developed into a podcast for which I developed the opening music and provided sound design for episodes 1-3.
Mason Gross BFA Solo/Duet Concerts
While a student at Rutgers, Sean worked with many choreographers to create music for their senior dance solos. It was a very enriching to see each dancer infuse their artistry into their pieces and watch the art come to life with music.
no thank you, I'm driving. (2016)
choreography by Jackie Carelli
for dancer, voice, electronics, and piano
Unapologetic Enough (2017)
choreography by Jenna Zielinski
music for 2 voices, percussion, and piano
Instrumental Chamber Music
Sean had the opportunity to work with Split the Lark Music Ensemble and Helix! Music Ensemble at Mason Gross on new instrumental chamber music.
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The Highlight of Your Evening (2017) chronicles feelings of anxiety and release. A songlike melody is presented along with scenes of positive and negative contemplation. It is written for flute, oboe, clarinet, alto saxophone, bassoon, horn, marimba, piano, violin, viola, and cello.
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Fires and Stars (2017) is a folksy, dreamy piece for acoustic guitar, trumpet, horn, conga drums, glockenspiel, violin and cello.
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180 (2016) contemplates what would occur if you only knew you had three minutes to live. The woodblock ticks until the piece's demise. It is written for clarinet, bass clarinet, alto saxophone, violin, viola, cello, piano and percussion.