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Nick Blaemire is a New York based performer and songwriter. In 2006, after graduating from the University of Michigan, he moved to New York and immediately joined the national tour of the hit Off-Broadway show "Altar Boyz." After leaving the tour, he was cast in the original company of "Cry-Baby," based on the 1990 John Waters film. It was there that he finished working on his first musical as a composer, entitled "Glory Days," which played on Broadway in the Spring of 2008.

Adam Gwon is a rising musical theater writer named one of "50 to Watch" by The Dramatist magazine. He won the 2008 Fred Ebb Award for excellence in musical theater songwriting and has been hailed "an extremely talented composer and lyricist" who "is seriously going places." (The New York Sun, StageSpace.com)

Adam's musical Ordinary Days will be produced in the 2009-10 season at Roundabout Theatre Company, South Coast Repertory, Adirondack Theatre Festival, and Human Race Theatre Company. Ordinary Days was previously produced at Pennsylvania Centre Stage, the Finborough Theatre in London, and at universities across the country, and was selected for the 2008 NAMT Festival of New Musicals.

His other shows include The Boy Detective Fails (book: Joe Meno), Bernice Bobs Her Hair (book/lyrics: Julia Jordan), and Ethan Frome (book: Michael Ruby). His work has been seen and developed at Roundabout Theatre Company, Primary Stages, the York Theatre, SIgnature Theatre, the Kennedy Center, Ars Nova, New Dramatists, NAMT, NYMF, the Johnny Mercer Foundation/American Music Theatre Project, Symphony Space, the Disney/ASCAP Musical Theatre Workshop, Tribeca Performing Arts Center, the Flea Theater, and many others.

Adam's other honors include the ASCAP Harold Adamson award, the MAC John Wallowitch award and a MAC Award nomination for best song, as well as commissions from Signature Theatre in Arlington, VA (as part of its American Musical Voices Project: The Next Generation), South Coast Repertory, Broadway Across America, and the EST/Sloan Project.

Adam has been a MacDowell Colony fellow, a musical theater fellow at the Dramatists Guild, and an artist-in-residence at Weston Playhouse. He is a graduate of NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, and a member of ASCAP and the Dramatists Guild.

Joe Iconis is a Long Island native and a grad of the great NYU/Tisch Graduate Musical Theater Writing Program. He is the proud recipient of a 2007 Ed Kleban Award, a 2006 Jonathan Larson Award, a Backstage Bistro Award, and a 1992 Garden City Elementary School Vocal Music Award. Joe proudly rips off from The Ramones, Dolly Parton, Weezer, The Rolling Stones, and many of his other idols. He is greatly inspired by Robert Altman movies, Dunkin Donuts coffee, and pornography.

Joe is the author of THE BLACK SUITS (music and lyrics by Joe, book by Joe and Robert Maddock; SPF @ The Public Theater), ReWRITE (Urban Stages), THE PLANT THAT ATE DIRTY SOCKS (Lucille Lortel Theater), THINGS TO RUIN: the Songs of Joe Iconis (The Zipper). Other projects include PLASTIC! and TRIUMPHANT BABY! (both with Robert Maddock). THE JOE ICONIS ROCK AND ROLL JAMBOREE has played to sold out crowds at venues all over the city, including Joe's Pub, The Laurie Beechman Theater, and Ars Nova. Joe is the sole songwriter for the legendary Kissin' Kazoo Sisters and has a reputation of bleeding all over pianos.

Joe owes his life and his sanity to the viciously talented gang of artists he frequently surrounds himself with. Its because of them that he does what he does, so please- Blame Them.

BRIAN LOWDERMILK (B.M., Music Theory and Composition, 2005) transferred to NYU/ Steinhardt Music after his freshman year as a music composition at Harvard University. He was awarded our department's Alan Menken Scholarship in Music Composition during his junior and senior years. In his senior year, he had the extraordinary honor of winning the 2005 Richard Rodgers Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for one of his musicals. The award, which carries a $40,000 prize, is usually given to much older composers. The letter of congratulations from the American Academy of Arts and Letters to Brian was written by one of the members of the selection committee, Stephen Sondheim.

Brian is the recipient of a 2006 Jonathan Larson Award and a 2005-2006 Dramatists Guild Fellowship. He is also a member of the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop.

With playwright Kait Kerrigan, Brian is writing TheaterworksUSA's adaptation of Henry and Mudge, which will premiere next season at the Off-Broadway, Lucille Lortel Theatre. Their work has been most recently showcased at the 2005 New York Musical Theater Festival, for which they were co-commissioned by the Upright Citizen's Brigade and the festival to write Wrong Number.

Other shows include The Unauthorized Autobiography of Samantha Brown, currently under option by a commercial producer, and The Woman Upstairs, seen in the 2004 New York Musical Theatre Festival.

RYAN SCOTT OLIVER, 2009 Larson Grant recipient; Music and lyrics for 35mm, Darling, Mrs. Sharp (2008 Richard Rodgers Award Winner, at Playwrights Horizons July 2009 starring Jane Krakowski, directed by Michael Greif); a collection of his work, Rated RSO, played the Kennedy Center, Joe's Pub, New York Musical Theatre Festival/ Off-Broadway: TheatreWorksUSA's We the People. Songbook now available for purchase: Music+Lyrics by Ryan Scott Oliver: Volume 1 from www.ryanscottoliver.com

Benj Pasek and Justin Paul are an American composer/lyricist team living in New York City. They are the recipients of the prestigious 2007 Jonathan Larson Award named after the late composer of Rent. At age 21, they became the youngest winners in the history of the foundation. Their musical revue, Edges, has been produced dozens of times at various professional theatres and colleges throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe, and is available through Musical Theatre International (mtishows.com). Pasek and Paul are writers for the Disney Channel television series Johnny and the Sprites and contributed music to White Noise [a cautionary musical] profiled on Good Morning America and ABC Primetime Live.

Benj and Justin are also accomplished singers and have developed a following for their uniquely styled concerts where they perform their own music. They’ve recently played sold-out shows at Joe’s Pub and Ars Nova in New York City and The Falcon Theatre in Los Angeles and were invited to participate in the first ever Johnny Mercer Songwriting Festival funded by the American Musical Theatre Project. Benj and Justin were commissioned to write Horace and Morris but Mostly Dolores for Theatreworks USA and were listed as a part of the “50 To Watch” upcoming playwrights and composers by The Dramatist Magazine. They have been interviewed on National Public Radio and were honored as 2007-2008 Dramatists Guild Fellows. Their music has been featured in Carnegie Hall and on ABC News. They are currently at work on several television and musical theatre projects.