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The accompanist and composer April Alsup once again brought her creative spark to Edinburgh this summer, leading the cast and crew of Absurd Hero onto the storied stage at Riddle’s Court. For the third consecutive year, her troupe was invited to perform at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, an honor that came with high expectations. Their previous production had earned a coveted four-star review and became a local sensation for its heartfelt portrayal of a theatre company banned from the festival. That show went on to receive six Broadway World regional nominations, including “Best New Musical,” and the excitement on both sides of the Atlantic was palpable when Alsup’s troupe announced they would return in 2025.

Kickoff meeting with Absurd Hero cast and crew

Reinventing Sisyphus: For this year’s production, Alsup guided her ensemble in an ambitious reinvention. Early discussions centered on how the new show could stand apart from their past two Fringe entries. The decision was to revisit her earlier work Sisyphus, which told the myth of the man condemned to roll a boulder up a hill in ancient Greece. In Absurd Hero, Alsup reframes Sisyphus through the lens of Albert Camus, transporting the myth to modern-day Columbus, Ohio. With Alsup’s trademark blend of wit, resilience, and Camusian philosophy, the troupe created a spectacle that was both intellectually daring and emotionally grounded. Clever marketing campaigns followed the company overseas, amplifying the sense of anticipation at the festival.

Absurd Hero cast and crew backstage at Riddles Court

Critical Success: The gamble paid off. On opening night, it became clear that Alsup and her team had struck gold once again. Scotland’s national newspaper, The Scotsman, awarded the production four stars and praised Alsup’s music as “strong, catchy, and uplifting.” Their review noted: “With the way things are Stateside, a musical about community, determination, resilience, and love seems like a poignantly fitting response to more brutal measures currently being enacted by government. And you’ve got to hand it to Denver-based April Alsup Productions, who fill Greenside’s tiny stage with what feels like a whole town of singing, dancing actors (12 of them, in fact, plus a two-strong live music section) for Alsup’s strong, catchy and uplifting tunes.” The review concluded, “Absurd Hero is a complex, richly imagined show whose energy and conviction blaze off the stage and one that dares to stand up for human warmth and compassion.”

Closing night picture in Willow Studio at Riddles Court

A Denver Village Behind the Curtain: Alsup is quick to remind audiences that theatrical triumph doesn’t happen in isolation. Mounting a new musical is a collective endeavor, and Denver’s thriving arts community provides the fertile ground needed to cultivate such work. Rehearsal spaces, local venues, theatre professionals, and supportive audiences form the village that allows Alsup’s vision to take shape and reach international stages. With Absurd Hero, April Alsup not only reaffirmed her reputation as a bold, thoughtful composer but also showcased how local artistry can resonate globally.

Denver, Colorado has a thriving performing arts scene with world renown music theatre companies across the state. At the center of it all is the Denver Center for the Performing Arts. In the early seventies Donald Seawell looked at the general area around 14th and Curtis in downtown Denver and got an idea for a first-class arts complex. The facility is now a preferred stop on the Broadway touring circuit and is well known for its acting classes and rental facilities.

The growth the performing arts community has blossomed in our state and accomplished accompanists are in high demand. Please consider contacting us the next time you need a professional accompanist. Our rates are reasonable and we will find someone who can fit right in with your requirements

It was by chance that a Denver-area theatre troupe and Colorado accompanist April Alsup, were given the opportunity to open this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s largest performing arts festival and one of the greatest celebrations of arts and culture on the planet. Each year, Greenside Venues randomly selects just twenty shows to open the festival. The event invites professional theatre guests and media from around to world to preview the works of several performing arts organizations who have traveled to Scotland to participate in the festival.

April Alsup with BANNED cast backstage at Riddle’s Court in Edinburgh Scotland

It was the second year in a row for this troupe to be invited to perform in Edinburgh and expectations were high. Last year the group’s show Eigg the Musical received five-stars and became a local sensation for its stage portrayal of the community buyout of the small Isle of Eigg in the Scottish Hebrides. The show went on to be selected by Broadway World readers as the Best New Musical of 2023; naturally, everyone on both sides of the pond were delighted when April and her leadership team agreed to return in 2024.

BANNED cast performing "All we want is sex" to kick off the 2024 Edinburgh Fringe Festival

Early on, the team discussed how the new show needs to be different than “Eigg.” and the members decided to reinvent “WYSIWYG,” an April Alsup musical about the sensitive issues of online dating, gender and sexuality. The new musical has now become known as just “BANNED,” since it follows a group of gender misfits through the events leading up to their debut at a local performing arts festival. There were all sorts of clever marketing tactics deployed that followed the clandestine theatre troupe to the festival.

After opening night it was clear that the theatre troupe had another hit on their hands. The Scotsman, Scotland’s National Newspaper, gave the show four stars and praised the composer and the show's accompanist April Alsup. “The songs are strong and memorable, in nicely complex arrangements too – tunes are swapped back and forth in complicated ensemble numbers, and the cast offers glowing harmonies as well as vivid solos.” It also hailed the actors, the choreography and declared that “Online dating gets a merciless take-down, while the pleasures of sex are dutifully celebrated.” 

April Alsup with BANNED cast and crew celebrating opening night in Edinburgh Scotland

“Best of all, however, BANNED offers a deeply human perspective on issues of gender and sexual identity, its flawed characters navigating their own mistake-filled routes through pronouns, preferences and plenty more,” the review continued. “It’s a complex, compassionate show of missteps and misunderstandings, and one that warmly applies the tolerance it requests of others onto its own damaged but likeable characters.”

April Alsup outside Pollock Hall before heading home to Denver Colorado

Theatrical success doesn’t come about in a vacuum; it really does take a village to mount a new musical production and Denver has a vast array of organizations that support the performing arts. From rehearsal spaces to performance venues, from theatre professionals to theatre goers, this community is the perfect place to incubate a meaningful, relevant and important show for international stages. For more information on “BANNED the Musical” or to watch a video of the Edinburgh performance run, visit www.banned.show.

We're launching a new program! Here's the story; We got our Real Book in an alley near the Berklee School of Music back in 1977 and we've been playing the charts ever since. A few year back one of us decided to learn to play accordion and found the instrument to be a natural fit for playing jazz standards. The stradella bass system is powerful and we decided she should go through the charts and add the songs to our YouTube Channel @accompanists. The next step is to record an ensemble so soloists have their very own online rhythm section of these famous jazz standards to sing or solo along with. Stay Tuned!

Accompanists YouTube Channel

Back in 2023 one of our principal accompanist was nominated for a regional Broadway World Award by her Denver area music theatre colleagues . The category was for "Best Music Direction & Orchestra Performance" for her participation in "Eigg the Musical" at Vintage Theatre in July. Every year Broadway World provides Colorado with an online portal to get the people's vote for the year's best theatrical productions around the state. Broadway World is an international organization that’s broken down in different regions across America, Canada, Central and South America, Europe and Asia. This year is the 20th anniversary of the event and it's great nice to see our PAP partners represented in the nominations too.

2023 Broadway World Award Winners

This is a peoples' choice award and it's really the only theatre award like it in the Denver area, so it’s a big deal for the smaller venues. Additionally, the people voting are vetted and validate that the work we’re doing is high caliber and at an elite level. It acknowledges the hard work that the leadership team have put into developing the show and the performances of the actors. Accompanist are sometimes overlooked for these types of awards and I guess in some ways we are just the support team for a actors, but it's rewarding when the show you are working on wins "Best New Musical."

The intersection between music, dance and storytelling is magical. I'll never forget when the show's director contacted me about accompanying a small group of actors and playing accordion for the show Eigg the Musical. It was set around the events of a Scottish ceilidh dance festival. They wanted to focus on just a few highland tales and traditional Scottish music would provide the authentic atmosphere they were after. Fast forward through a pandemic, learning to play Scottish Cielidh music on an accordion, a lot of give and take between everyone and it all started to come together. We delivered nine shows over the course of two weeks and many of them were sold out. Use the link below to look over the scrapbook we put together. It includes pictures that go all the way back to the beginning of the project.

2023 Eigg the Musical Scapbook

The reviews are out on Eigg the Musical:

Eigg show friends from Ayr Scotland

Accompanying a Ceilidh dance is so much fun! Here's a couple 360° videos of the cast of Eigg the Musical working through some ceilidh dance steps with our local Scottish dance experts. The tunesets are pretty traditioanal, we start with "Miss McLeods Reel", then transition to "Willajford" and briefly hit "The High Road to Linton. What a great tuneset!

Next, the troupe wanders into some waltz moves and the band joins in with "When Irish Eye Are Smiling". What a memorable moment! Man oh man, that was a fun night!

We get asked if we can supply standard music theater rehearsal tracks for music theatre works all the time, but what if you're looking for a custom arrangement? It's really not that uncommon for a singer to transpose a song up or down a few keys or adjust tempo markings for an audition. Directors are always looking to explore creative alternatives if the music calls for it.

2018 WYSIWYG Cast Director reviewing vocal parts with performers

That's where accompanist.com can help! We are a group of performing arts professionals eager to help you get the most out of on your music theater rehearsal music and we can connect with you remotely using the latest technology and collaboration tools too.

We hear this a lot! So here's what you can expect. Accompanists play instruments like a keyboard or guitar and support vocalists, dancers, and theater performers. Accompanists wear a lot of different hats; for example, they may accompany the church choir as pianists and/or accompany guest performers for a segments for a television show. A collaborative pianist typically performs with vocalists and dancers in a rehearsal setting. Lots of accompanists double as teachers or educators and are capable of teaching and supporting a student's performance while playing as well.

Reaching expert accompanists of different music genres, styles and traditions has become so much easier over the last 25 years. A simple Google search on the phrase "Bandoneon instructor in Rio de Janeiro" or "Irish tin whistle teacher in Dublin" will give you pages of real contacts who are hungry to help you learn their craft. It's always intimidating to embrace new technology at first, but over time it's become hard to ignore the new paradigm. We've learned that the terminology and functionality of teleconferencing products is really the same and there are lots of tools to choose from; Zoom, Google Meet and Skype are probably the most widely known though. Skype (owned by Microsoft) has been around the longest and it is still a great choice for professional accompanists.

April Alsup discusses Scottish Cèilidh Music with Sandy Brechin from Edinburgh Scotland

 Most accompanists will explore the underlying characteristics of different music genres, traditions and styles and often have to reach out to resources from various corners of the world to better understand a particular musical pedagogy. Here's an example: April Alsup, a Denver accordionist and music theater composer, was conducting research for a new musical theater work about a small island in the Hebrides and wanted to make sure to capture the nuances of Scottish Cèilidh music. An internet search, an eMail and Viola... she's able to setup regular meetings with a professional Cèilidh accordion player from Edinburgh Scotland and get all sorts of tips and tricks for Cèilidh dance accompaniment.

We get all sorts of accompanist requests over the course of a year and we can usually find someone who can fit right in. Most of our inquiries are for an expert piano accompanist for auditioning actors for an upcoming music theater work. We've worked with a lot of different theaters in and around the Denver metropolitan area. Sometimes the requests that come in are for a last minute substitutions for an instrumentalist who may have become ill or for a church service when the staff organist, singer or music director has a vacation planned or some other conflict.

In any case, we get some unusal requests from time-to-time too; for example, we recently heard from a Denver area creative team looking to identify someone familiar with Scottish Cèilidh dancing. So we reached out to several area Scottish dance organizations and were able to find a professional Scottish dance team living in Colorado who were involved with Cèilidh dancing in Scotland. We had a Skype call with our accordion resource to discuss the specifics and penciled in a date to all get together. Everyone was eager to participate and learn more about the Scottish dances and the culture behind them too. We played tune sets for a Gay Gordon, a Reel and a Jig and the client was thrilled. It was so much fun! 🎭

Using streaming audio services can be a powerful tool for any accompanist looking to provide performers with rehearsal materials to practice their parts on demand. The hard part is selecting the service that best fits your needs. Google Drive is good for accompanists who want to give access to various people in different ways, but you'll need to come up with a folder nomenclature to organize your music material.

SoundCloud

Spotify

Apple

Amazon

YouTube

Recently, April Alsup expanded her music distribution channel to include several major streaming audio services; Spotify, Apple, Amazon and YouTube, but she still uses Soundcloud for music theater performers looking for rehearsal and/or audition materials because it's easy to use and you don't have to jump through a bunch of hoops to get your practice parts out there for people.

With the new Omicron variant sweeping across the country we've seen an uptick of inquiries regarding remote accompaniment capabilities. The staff and contractors at accompanist.com are available seven days a week and we are familiar with the latest teleconferencing tools from Zoom, Google, Skype, Facebook and Microsoft. Just let us know your music genre, instrument ensemble and any accompaniment requirements and we'll make sure to contact you to discuss talent and scheduling options.

"Accompanist.com has demonstrated a unique combination of technology insight, musicianship and professionalism over the pandemic." The Performing Arts Project. 

There's been a growing interest in the accordion. The popularity of the instrument has really gained a lot of momentum with younger audiences and we're finding more interest from people in Colorado looking for an accompanist with the ability to read and/or arrange accordion music. The music notation is similar to a piano, but there are a lot of differences too.

The right-hand manual is notated the same way as piano music, but the treble clef is used almost exclusively for piano accordions since the written range extends no lower the three ledger lines below the staff. On the other hand (no pun intended), the Stradella system is always written in the bass clef. Single notes are written in the lower half while the chordal buttons are notated in the upper half. This is in accordance with the official AAA notation standard adopted around the world.

April Alsup Accordion Accompanist

Finding an accompanist with the ability to read and arrange on and for the accordion using universal notation and is familiar with the subtleties of playing in a pit orchestra can be difficult. Please let us know if your latest score requires someone with this skill set. We'd be happy to help.

In musical theatre, a sitzprobe (from the German for seated rehearsal) is a rehearsal where the actors sing with the orchestra, focusing attention on integrating the two groups. It is often the first rehearsal where the orchestra and singers rehearse together. It really is a milestone for any Musical production since the entire team is involved. In the early stage of a production the actors usually work  with only an accompanist, who plays a simplified (Piano/Conductor) score with the singers. During the sitzprobe the music director takes over and works with the team as a whole to tweak various parts of the show.

April Alsup working with Sisyphus Music Director

Sisyphus Rehearsal with ensemble

April Alsup Verified Spotify Artist

April Alsup  "Book Musical Basics" Musical Theatre Series Author

We provide accompanists to the music theater industry.

Every accompanist has scars associated to the task of turning pages. "There are all sorts of funny stories of students called upon to turn pages for a visiting artist or faculty member that went astray" said April Alsup, one of Denver's most popular music theater composers. "It seems like everyone has their eyes focused on different places on the page and there's just not a best moment for one person to turn the page for another." Clearly, the margin of error is small, but the audience seldom notices.

2020 has been brutal for the theater community and professional accompanists are not immune. We've all been forced into a whole new way of thinking. Many of us were reluctant to embrace technology; after all, we often get our sheet music physically handed to us by an artist who is auditioning for a role and the casting experts expect us to play the parts flawlessly. I'm always glad when I know the song, but I'm easily annoyed when someone asks me to play it in a different key or speed-up the tempo...yikes!

April Alsup uses technology in the new COVID age

At least with teleconferencing the participants don't expect us to synchronize our parts with everyone in real-time and we usually get some time to deliver the instrumental accompaniments. I guess someday it'll all be done online, but for now the latency between the connections prohibits that and there seems to be a lot more planning involved in the musical development stages of new online theater productions. Perhaps it should have been that way all along, my guess is we'll be using teleconferencing a lot more even after the pandemic, it really is very convenient and allows us to deliver a better product for everyone involved.

 

Why not use someone who grew up listening to their music? Someone who has played all of their songs. Someone who knows lots of their stories. Someone who has been to Liverpool, been to the museum, been on stage at the Cavern and walked down Penny Lane. April Alsup has been playing Beatles songs for nearly 50 years and will tell you that they never get old for her. Contact us today and let's make a date and "Get Back" to "Yesterday"!

Every once in a while the stars align and a composer of a Music Theater work actually performs their work(s) for an audience too. There are several notable composers who sometimes perform their works live including; Laurie Anderson, Meredith Monk and Robert Ashley. In 2018, our very own April Alsup performed her 90 minute work "WYSIWYG" to avid off-Broadway musical theater fans at Teatro LATEA in the East Village in New York City. Over the Summer the show received 12 award nomination for music theatre excellence including  "Best Music Direction"!