It is now the Summer of 2026. It is clear that juggling all the different aspects of launching a show is a Mount Everest of a task. Never give up! I clearly have a product that the world will hear, so I begin my shouting. Here is the short of the long of it:
I last blogged in 2022. It is incredibly exciting to write a new musical. My heart pounds to get it in front of a crowd. Queen Esther is an incredibly fun show… on paper. Well, digitally to be more precise. The script is ready and the music has become this growing, breathing, expanding project. I wrote most of the songs on guitar, then a couple on piano. But now, it has evolved into this wonderful klezmer-style musical. There are several Queen Esther musicals out there. This one maintains the original flavor of the culture it came from. It is a carnival! And what music better represents that feeling of carnival than klezmer!?
Here’s how I got there. After writing the songs on guitar, I needed to create sheet music with the melodies and piano. After 3 years of searching for a pianist to hire, I was stuck in a cycle. I found a pianist to start a discussion. The discussions went on for months. The pianists never commited. Onto the next pianist until I gave up and decided to learn enough piano to get something on paper.
Once I had my basic music, I attempted to put on some form of production of Queen Esther, the musical. Unfortunately, I do not live in a great city of new musicals. There is a lack of interested talent. However, I did get some movement forward with several wonderful people from which I captured some video to help tell my story. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to help Queen Esther the musical fly onto stage in front of an audience. I returned to focussing on the music.
By great fortune, I discovered an online platform called Musiversal. This is a subscription service that hires musicians from all around the world to record music. You can only work with one musician at a time. For my current purposes of creating a living demo, it worked. While the quality of the musicians varied, they were overwhelmingly professional and made magic in the short recording time spans of half an hour per recording. Sometimes, I had to book 2 sessions for a single instrument per song. In the end, I go what I wanted, and more.
Two of the musicians were particularly incredible and I have to hand it to the bassist, Sean Rubin, who upon hearing and recording bass to the first song in Queen Esther, “The Grogger Song,” led me to making it klezmer. He flat out said, “I know this is a musical, but I can hear klezmer in it.” Though it wasn’t a surprise, as the music has always had a traditional feel to it, this was a revelation that I needed some clarinet and strings in my music. While Musiversal musicians do not tend to know or understand klezmer music, I was able to convey the idea well enough to give the Queen Esther demo a foundation in the feeling of klezmer. I will share this soon.
This Summer I am fixing the vocal tracks that were previously recording outside of optimal conditions. In many rough tracks, my kids could be heard playing and on occassion, my wife can be heard cleaning dishes in the background
I’ve built a small sound booth that is better than nothing and have started to sing… when I can. There are still sound obstacles. I’m having fun and the demo will get to where it currently needs to be.
Meanwhile, I’ve returned to this website and will start updating social media soon enough. Please be on the lookout and sign up for Queen Esther, the Newsletter. I’ll keep you updated.
Sound Booth Inside
