Chloe Geller
Interview Highlights
Seek opportunities to collaborate with and learn from others who have experience in the theatre industry, especially other women.
It’s important to have more female-identified stories onstage and more female-identifying creators in all areas of theatre.
We need to find new ways to make theatre that allow the people working in the industry to work reasonable hours for reasonable pay.
Do your best work and know where your limits are. Use your resources and ask for help when you need it.
Chloe’s Current/Upcoming Work
Chloe is one of the winners of Write Out Loud 2021. Her song "Pity Party" will be performed in concert at Feinstein's/54 Below by a Broadway alum on Tuesday, April 26th at 9:45 pm. Click here to purchase tickets.
Chloe was the music assistant on 54 Sings Olivia Rodrigo, which had two sold-out shows at Feinstein's/54 Below last September. Come see Chloe play keys and sing background vocals when the concert returns on Monday, January 31st at 7 pm. Click here to purchase tickets.
Bio
Meet music director, composer, and pianist Chloe Geller!
Website: https://maestramusic.org/profile/chloe-geller/
Chloe Geller (she/her) is a music director, composer, and pianist based in New York City. Credits include: Second Line (Carner and Gregor, Associate Music Supervisor, Pace New Musicals), Head and Heart (MD, Additional Orchestrations and Vocal Arrangements, NYMF), Next to Normal (MD, SoHo Playhouse), Rumpelstiltskin and the Game of the Name (Music Assistant/Copyist, Vatrena King and Catherine Hurd), Legally Blonde (MD, NYU Skirball), [title of show] (MD, NYU Tisch); Music Direction Intern at Pittsburgh CLO (Summer 2018), Goodspeed Music Direction Intensive class of 2019. She has also worked on concerts at Feinstein's/54 Below, The Triad, the Laurie Beechman, and other venues around NYC. Chloe is one of the winners of Write Out Loud 2021. Her song "Pity Party" will be performed in concert at Feinstein's/54 Below by a Broadway alum, and it will be recorded and released on streaming platforms in 2022.
“I’m interested in writing female-identifying stories. I want to make projects I’m excited about with people I’m excited about.”
Chloe’s Creative Work
Hayley: Chloe, please introduce yourself and tell us about what you do in the theatre world.
Chloe: I’m Chloe Geller. I work as a music assistant on new projects in development, and I’m a music director and a composer.
Hayley: Chloe is a phenomenal composer who just won a big award this year, the Write Out Loud contest. Go see her show at 54 Below!
Chloe: The Write Out Loud contest was started by Taylor Louderman and Ben Rauhala to provide opportunities for up-and-coming musical theatre writers. I submitted two standalone songs last year. In July, I learned that I was one of the winners, which I was completely not expecting, and I’m so honored and grateful for the opportunity. The five winners are all getting our songs orchestrated, recorded, and released on streaming platforms. It will be really exciting to get the song recorded.
Then on Tuesday, April 26, we’re doing a concert at 54 Below. This is my first official release of any music that I’ve written. I wrote the song a little over two years ago, and I’m proud and excited to share it with the world.
Hayley: How did you come to this field and your creative work?
Chloe: I started performing in musicals when I was seven or eight. I also took piano lessons, and when I was nine, I started writing classical-style piano pieces, influenced and inspired by what I was learning in my lessons. A couple of years later, I started writing songs.
For high school, I went to Interlochen Arts Academy. I did their singer/songwriter program, and then I decided to do their composition program, which focused on concert music and new music. My senior year, I was the pianist for the jazz combo. I wasn’t very well versed in jazz at the time, so it was great to learn about another style of music.
In junior year, I played keyboard for the school production of Rent, which was my first time playing in the pit for a musical. We were on stage in costumes, like a rock band. It was really cool to take my love of performing in theatre and bring music into that. I knew I could see myself doing this for a long time.
I graduated in spring 2021 from NYU’s composition program. I wanted to go to NYU because I knew there would be a lot of opportunities to write theatre music and music direct shows. At NYU, I worked on seven different productions, and I fell in love with music direction and working on music for theatre. It was an invaluable experience to study with teachers who were music directors and orchestrators on Broadway.
Right before the pandemic, I worked on a new musical at Pace University - Second Line, by Sam Carner and Derek Gregor - as their music assistant. That was such a wonderful hands-on experience to learn about the process of new work development. I did everything from accompanying to teaching music to tracking changes and taking notes and working in the Finale files.
Then the pandemic happened in March 2020. I was home for 5-6 months, and I took some remote classes and did some remote music assistant work. I worked on an adaptation of Rumpelstiltskin as the music assistant and copyist. The show is going to be published by Youth Plays in LA. It’s my first published score that I’m a music copyist on, and it’s a production for community theatres and schools.
Since then, I’ve been working on readings and making piano tracks for actors. I’m seeking opportunities to work with music directors, composers, and performers on new projects.
Chloe’s Mentors
Amy: Can you tell us about the mentorship experiences you’ve had and the people who have helped you along your journey?
Chloe: At NYU, Joe Church and Greg Pliska were and still are great mentors in musical theatre writing and orchestrating. I really appreciated Joe’s advice and how I could ask him questions about whatever project I was working on at the time.
For my senior project as a composition major, I recorded a short album of original songs and decided to orchestrate a few of the tracks for a larger group of musicians. I ended up orchestrating two of my songs, and Greg helped me through the process from start to finish. It was great to work with other musicians who have expertise in their instruments, and I learned a lot just from talking to them. We were able to safely record in a studio, which was really special. After my song “Pity Party” comes out through the Write Out Loud contest, I’m hoping to release one of the songs I recorded in the spring.
Hayley: Going through NYU, did you have any musician collaborators who were women?
Chloe: At NYU, I didn’t have any female composition teachers. My first year, I got to work on a benefit concert with a fabulous music director, Alex Crosby. She was one of the first music directors to work on a production of SIX on Norwegian Cruise Lines. She was a great mentor.
In college, most of the female-identifying theatre creators I came in contact with were directors. So it was great to collaborate with other women in different positions on a creative team. Other than that, I didn’t have many female mentors at NYU.
But in my sophomore year, I started getting involved with Maestra.
Amy/Hayley: We love Maestra!
Chloe: Maestra is an incredible nonprofit for female-identifying, nonbinary, and transgender musicians in the theatre. I found some mentors outside of NYU through that. I did Anna Jacobs’ New York Youth Symphony, a musical theatre songwriting program, and it was wonderful to train with her.
When I look back, most of my mentors have been male-identifying and the projects I’ve worked on have been in male-dominated rooms. It’s incredible that organizations like Maestra exist, because now I’m finding more female music directors who are mentors. It’s been awesome to talk with music assistants as well and ask them how much I should be charging for different types of work. Because that’s something that’s not talked about a lot, and music assistants are not represented by Local 802. I’m learning as I go about standard rates and how to ask for what you want and advocate for yourself.
Hayley: In the Musical Theatre Writers Collective, half of our cohort are women, which is such a new experience for me. Prior to this, all my training has been in situations where I’m one of the only women. Having teachers like Zina Goldrich, who are women and such icons in the field, it’s meant a lot to me.
Chloe: Zina has been a wonderful mentor for me too. And Julie McBride, the music director for Moulin Rouge, has been an amazing mentor this semester, and I’m very grateful to talk with her about the industry and about music direction in the theatre. People who are doing the work in the field can give insight about issues that are happening now and things that have happened to them.
Womanhood and Its Benefits
Amy: Can you tell us what being a woman means to you?
Chloe: It’s about being strong and being yourself. In theatre, women have typically been underrepresented, so having more female-oriented stories is really important.
Hayley: I feel that very strongly too. We talk a lot about ways in which being a woman in the industry can be a barrier. Are there ways that being a woman has benefited you?
Chloe: In rooms that are male-dominated, female-identifying creators inherently bring a different perspective. Especially if there is a female lead character, having a woman in the room naturally brings that understanding and experience. Women can add a different perspective that you might not otherwise get from a team that doesn’t have a lot of diverse voices.
Hayley: Having other women in the room, I feel a sense of community. There has historically been competitiveness between women, which is bred by patriarchy. But more often than not, nowadays, I feel a sense of camaraderie and community with other women.
Chloe: I completely agree.
Chloe’s Creative Mission
Amy: Can you tell us about your creative mission?
Chloe: I’m interested in writing female-identifying stories. My creative mission is something I’m still figuring out. I want to make projects I’m excited about with people I’m excited about.
Amy: What excites you about female-identified stories?
Chloe: Part of it is that they’re not stories I’ve seen much of onstage. Especially stories about people who come from different backgrounds. Seeing stories about people who rise through the ranks and come into their own, making their own way in the world, is interesting. I love Carole King and the musical Beautiful. She was writing pop songs in the ‘60s in rooms mostly full of men. It’s interesting to see how someone paved their own way in an industry that didn’t have a lot of women writing songs.
How to Improve the Theatre Industry
Hayley: If you could make one change to the theatre industry, what would it be?
Chloe: The first thing that comes to mind for me is the hours. I’ve seen posts on social media about no 10 out of 12s. When I’m working on a production or a reading, I come in prepared to put my best foot forward and work really hard for the duration of the project. But there is so much expected of people in terms of the hours and doing it for less pay than a person should be getting for how much work they’re doing.
For music assistants, there’s a lot of work to do outside of rehearsal, including preparation work. After rehearsal, I’m putting together the notes and releasing them to the music director and orchestrator. If there’s a way to adjust those schedules to allow people to have time to do what they need to do and come in recharged for the next day, then they can do their best work. Sometimes I’ll run on adrenaline and it’ll be great. But I can’t always do my best work when I haven’t had enough time to rest.
Hayley: The workplace is part of our capitalist system, and show business is run almost like a corporation. It can be very exploitative in terms of the hours you’re putting in and the amount of energy you’re giving. You’re not getting paid for all of the hours you’re working, and just the ability for people to have lives and go home…
How would you come home to take care of your toddler when you’re doing a 29-hour reading or a tech week? And just for people to go to bed and get enough sleep. There’s this idea that when your job is your passion, you should give everything for it. But that’s often an unhealthy mindset around theatrical work.
Amy: And how long will it stay your passion if that’s how you’re living your life?
Creative Work/Life Balance
Amy: Chloe, how do you balance your creative work with your other life responsibilities and other things you want to do?
Chloe: That’s something I’m working on. When I was music directing productions in college, it felt like a full-time job on top of school. Working on projects that are not for an extended period of time, or scheduling things so I can work on a project but also take time for myself…
I also tend to be a perfectionist, but I’m learning to say, “This is good enough.” And I’m working on time management, making good use of the time that I am working. Not making things take longer than they need to. It’s also asking for help, doing your best work and using the resources you have.
Amy: It seems like that’s a thing you do really well - identifying your resources and using them, recognizing when you don’t know things and asking the right questions.
Hayley: It’s really hard to ask for help. Especially as a woman, I feel this constant need to prove myself. That I deserve to be here, I’m good at what I do, I’m smart, I have things to offer. I’m a director, and I want people to respect me, so it’s hard to say, “I need help with this.” I sometimes feel a sense of defeat at not being able to do everything myself, and that’s not how it should be.
Chloe: I agree with that. Sometimes that’s seen as a weakness, but it's not. You can’t know everything. And you don’t always know everything you’re going to be asked to do. I was a music assistant on a new musical over the summer, and I was asked to format music in Sibelius, the music notation software. I think I had used Sibelius once - I’m more proficient with Finale - but I said okay, I’m gonna learn this. So I would message my friends and ask them: How do you do this thing? How do you change that? And I taught myself how to use it.
Sometimes you have to say no to things and know your boundaries, that’s important. And sometimes you have to learn things on the job. I said, “I want to work on this project, so I’m going to learn Sibelius.” And I was proud of myself - I took on this project, and I taught myself enough of the program to be able to do the work. You grow by trying new things, but also by knowing what your limits are. Not everyone can do everything.
Final Thoughts
Amy: Chloe, what are you most proud of in your life right now?
Chloe: Challenging myself with work opportunities. Pushing myself to do things that I otherwise wouldn’t have, to grow, to learn and become a better musician and person.
Hayley: What would a more feminine theatrical space look like to you?
Chloe: Having more female-identifying artists in different jobs across the board - directors, choreographers, music team, production managers, stage managers, company managers. Those voices can bring a great new perspective to the art.
It’s having women represented not just onstage, but also behind the scenes. For instance, most of the music coordinators on Broadway have been male, but there’s a female music coordinator for SIX. Seeing women in higher positions that have been predominantly male is really inspiring.
Amy: SIX is a show where it’s really important to have women leaders because of the story that’s being told. Personally, I would be mad if it didn’t.
Hayley: Like girl boss feminism - feminism that is just performative, where there are a lot of men behind the scenes. There was a scandal a while back about these girl boss accounts on Instagram. They were using feminism as a marketing tool, but all of the leaders of those companies were white men. It’s the commodification of feminism.
Amy: And from an artistic perspective, it shows in the work when it’s coming from an authentic place, rather than pandering to sell to an audience.
Chloe, thank you so much for talking with us. Please keep us posted about all the amazing things you are doing, because we want to help promote you and your work. That is part of the community that we are creating here.
Chloe: Thank you so much for having me. It’s great to talk to you both. These are things that don’t get talked about enough, and it’s great to recognize them. I’m excited to read the other interviews, and I think the work you are doing is meaningful and much needed.
Amy: Thank you! We’re so excited to have you be a part of it.
