Multi-Grammy and Tony Award-nominated Broadway composer and producer Frank Wildhorn came to BYU on Sept. 3, and dazzled audiences with inspiring music and incredible creative genius.
“The talent here at BYU is immense,” Wildhorn said. “I don’t know if it’s in the water or what.”
Sporting a BYU hat throughout his entire concert, Wildhorn shared songs from many of his musicals, including “Jekyll and Hyde,” “The Civil War” and “The Scarlet Pimpernel.” Wildhorn brought with him three Broadway singers — Jackie Burns, who played Elphaba in “Wicked” in 2011; Darren Ritchie, who starred in “Wonderland”; and Adrienne Warren, who is starring in the new musical, “Bring it On.”
“I’ve been lucky in my life to surround myself with amazing singers,” Wildhorn said. He added that these singers are able to bring his music to life.
In addition to a concert on Thursday night, Wildhorn taught two master classes to performing arts students on campus.
Michael Milkanin, a music dance theater major from Riverton, said the master class was highly beneficial for students to work with such an accomplished composer.
“The master class was really great,” Milkanin said. “It made his enormous success seem attainable and kind of give hope to the performers.”
Many students performed for Wildhorn in the class, and he even invited a few BYU students to sing “Into the Fire” with one performer on the stage.
“Everybody sang his music, so it was really cool to get direct feedback from the composer,” Milkanin said.
Jeffrey Martin, the presenter for the performing arts at BYU, said having Wildhorn on this campus was a worthwhile honor and was very beneficial to the student body, especially musicians and composers.
“Tonight’s performance provides us with the unique opportunity to hear the music — and perhaps a few of the stories behind it — directly from the man who first committed the notes to paper,” Martin said.
The unique opportunity to hear beloved show tunes from the creative genius behind them was a very special experience for the audience. Those in attendance laughed, cried and even gave Wildhorn two standing ovations.
In between songs, Wildhorn told many funny and touching stories. He told of a time early in his career when he got a surprise call from Julie Andrews requesting him to write a song.
“When she called, I immediately thought it was my friend who does great impressions,” Wildhorn said. “So I hung up the phone.”
Wildhorn has written music for stars such as Whitney Houston and for momentous events like the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City.
For the night’s encore, all three Broadway singers came back out in BYU sweatshirts and cheered for the Cougars. They left the audience with inspiring words of following your dreams.
“Bringing Mr. Wildhorn and his colleagues to campus serves two purposes,” Martin said. “To be entertained by them and to give our students the opportunity to learn from professional artists who are actively working in this field right now.”
