This past October, I had the honor to direct a staged concert of Disney’s Tarzan for the National Association for Music Education Conference in Nashville, TN.  About 2,000 audience members joined us for our singular performance at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel, and it was a huge success!  We partnered with Disney Theatricals, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, local professionals, area high school dancers, and Broadway actress Eden Espinosa for the staged concert.  Our goal was to inspire Choir, Orchestra, and Band teachers to use musicals as a means for showcasing their talent and building cross-disciplines.  I placed the orchestra on stage to highlight the music and used costuming and simple staging to help tell the story.  We also used graphic animation for parts of the musical made by a local company.  It was magical.  The students loved the performance and the conference organizers already want to know what we are doing next year!

Photo credit: Rick Malkin