Jason Robert Brown

Jason Robert Brown is a Jewish-American musical theater composer and lyricist. Often cited as one of the "New School" of theatrical composers (a list that includes Michael John LaChiusa, Adam Guette

Jason Robert Brown is a Jewish-American musical theater composer and lyricist. Often cited as one of the "New School" of theatrical composers (a list that includes Michael John LaChiusa, Adam Guettel, Andrew Lippa, and Larry O'Keefe, among others), Brown's music sensibility fuses pop-rock stylings with theatrical lyrics, and he is frequently compared to Billy Joel. An accomplished pianist, Brown has often served as music director, conductor, and pianist for his own productions.

Brown grew up in the suburbs of New York City. He attended the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, and began his career in New York City as an arranger and conductor, working on shows such as William Finn's A New Brain, and playing at several nightclubs and piano bars in the city. Songs for a New World marked the first major New York production of Brown's songs. An off-Broadway revue with a limited run, the show was directed by Daisy Prince, daughter of legendary director/producer Hal Prince, and featured the 25-year-old Brown's pop-rock-influenced music. The song "Stars and the Moon" has since become a cabaret standard, and is probably Brown's best-known composition to date.