Spotlight on Jersey Boys Conductor Deborah Hurwitz
October 7th, 2008Musician Deborah Hurwitz, who helped shape the sound of the Broadway hit Jersey Boys and other major stage shows, is striking out on her own as a singer. As VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan reports from Los Angeles, the former musical prodigy hopes to make a name as a solo performer.
By age 12, Deborah Hurwitz was performing classical music on stage. But she loved the freedom of popular music, especially Broadway music, and went on to perform, conduct and design the sound of such Broadway hits as Miss Saigon, “Mamma Mia! and most recently Jersey Boys, which tells the story of the pop group the Four Seasons.
“I did my first Broadway show when I was 22, and I played a bunch of them,” said Deborah Hurwitz. “And my long-term theater involvement was “Miss Saigon” for several years and then Mamma Mia! for several years, and then Jersey Boys, with lots of other independent productions in between.”
Hurwitz performs on-stage in the hit show Jersey Boys. She also works as music designer, using a synthesizer to expand the range of the small orchestra for a richer sound. In her work on Jersey Boys, she is responsible for getting the same sound in every production – from New York to London.
“I’m proud to say that with Jersey Boys, I pioneered a system that had not been put into place before that combined the live elements with some machine sampled elements, and it serves to create this sound,” she said. “It’s an extremely full sound and people are always very surprised that there are only nine people in the band.”
Hurwitz brought her own vocal textures to an album – the first released under her own name – called “Naked Wire.”
