Filling the niche...

I have to say…when we talked about having a composer coming to class, the person who walked through the door was certainly not the person I expected to see!

I had met Kiya Heartwood earlier when she had come into my job looking for some music. She seemed so shy, but friendly, and we discussed whether her name was [‘kija] or [‘kaija].

It was a wonderful experience having Kiya visit with us this week. I really enjoyed listening to her talk about her work and how she came up with ideas. It is always helpful for singers to better understand where the music they interpret comes from.
I think it is absolutely amazing that Kiya composes for such an under-appreciated group! There are kids out there that want to sing, and do shows, but don’t have anything they can really work with! I worked at a small company that produced shows with middle-school kids. We were always trying to figure out what to do with our kids that would still be appropriate considering their ages. You can only sing Once Upon a Mattress or Annie so many time (and even Annie is a tiny bit questionable!). I remember the last show I did with them was Little Shop of Horrors. And I always had this nagging feeling that the subject matter really was not something they should be portraying. As silly as the show is, there is still murder and physical abuse woven into the plot. We also had to have a young girl play “Audrey II” and transposed everything for her because we lacked a decent amount of boys for the show.

I have to say that I think Kiya has picked a wonderful niche for her music. Most of these kids are really eager to sing a lot of the stuff Broadway has to offer, but are stuck in this weird place where they’re not quite ready to meet the demands of the music. Making her works so flexible so that it will fit almost any situation is an added bonus! I know the kids I worked with were always eager to hear me sing something for them. I can only imagine what they would have thought if we came up with a show where those of us who were directing them could also participate without taking the attention away from them. I think Kiya is more than capable of coming up with some really great ideas for that overlooked group. I look forward to hearing what else she comes up with.