ABOUT
George Luton is a NYC-based theatre composer and musician who creates narrative work that lifts hearts, challenges assumptions and confronts audiences with emotional truth. With every project, he aspires to fuse story, music, and production into a cohesive whole, a true and selfless collaboration between different art forms that strengthen and build upon each other. He believes that through this unified cumulation, and the necessary cooperation among artists to develop it, musical theatre is uniquely situated to directly inspire positive change within people.
Originally from the Greater Boston Area, George has developed scores and launched productions for over a dozen original musicals and plays throughout the New England regional theatre circuit. During that time, he seasonally worked as the composer and music director for Island Theatre Workshop's ACT MV program, where he created and realized four musical theatre scores each summer (Treasure Island, The Snow Queen, Boots). A handful of these projects (Nottingham: The Legend of Robin Hood, Stiltskin, Earhart) were later workshopped at Stage 284, including staged readings, full productions, and licensing arrangements that led to further performances of this work across the Massachusetts North Shore.
George's talents are prodigious, intuitive, and inspired. He has the ability to sense the unspoken beats in a scene and elevate them with his musical renderings. The stylistic breadth and psychological depth of his music dramatically enhance my work as a playwright.
Hortense Gerardo, playwright
George is an experienced and highly sought-after theatre music director and pianist who has performed not only across the United States, but has also toured internationally, from Japan to Cuba to Uganda. Regionally, George has played and conducted for Island Theatre Workshop mainstage (Mary Poppins, Once Upon a Mattress, Peter Pan), the Stage 284 Blackbox Lab (Resting On Our Laurels), Spindrift Studios (Hair, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee), and Purple Summer Productions (Spring Awakening). Other music directorial credits include work at the Susan Stein Shiva Theater (The Rocky Horror Show, Formerly Known) and the Powerhouse Theater (The Spitfire Grill, Melancholy Play: A Chamber Musical).
conducting 'A Little Night Music' and awarded Molly Thatcher-Kazan Prize for Distinction in Theatrical Arts
performing in a new musical at The Tank NYC
accompanying Akari Komura at Happo-En Gardens
George obtained a B.A. in Music and Drama with a focus in Composition from Vassar College, receiving both general and departmental honors. While completing his undergraduate studies, he worked for the school’s drama department as a music specialist, overseeing musical elements for all productions as a conductor, arranger, composer, and administrator (The Cherry Orchard, Machinal, A Midsummer Night’s Dream) For his contributions as a theatre conductor, he was honored with the Molly Thatcher-Kazan Memorial Prize for Distinction in Theatrical Arts (A Little Night Music). He is also an alumnus of the Illinois Wesleyan University Summer Composition Institute, and a member of BMI's Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop.
Prepared, thorough, and collaborative, George is able to traverse the worlds of both musical theatre and opera with ease while always centering storytelling and world-building. He is a virtuosic musician and any director or company would be lucky to work with him.
George is a superb leader and engages with singers and instrumentalists in a way that always draws out their best. His work as a music director is unparalleled, and I cannot sing his praises enough.
George Luton conducts and accompanies the orchestra of The Trojan Women at the Lenfest Center for the Arts
A rehearsal summary of George Luton vocal directing Bianca Barragan, Emily Drossell, Raphe Gilliam, and Logan Pitts
Since relocating to New York City, George has served as a music director and pianist for the York Theatre, Columbia University School of the Arts (The Trojan Women, Trouble in Tahiti), Prospect Theatre Company (Move Meant), 54 Below (Grace and the Ghost), The Emerging Artists' Theatre (Will Wilson Saves the World), Theatre On the Go! (Mean Girls), the Tank NYC (Of Sleepless Nights), and the touring production of Broadway's Next Hit Musical.
Educator
Having taught music for over a decade, George is an accomplished and adaptive instructor for all ages and abilities. Encouraging and empowering, he enables students to reach their full potential, surpassing their own expectations of themselves
While music directing for Island Theatre Workshop's Children's Theatre program, George developed comprehensive curriculums in theory, voice, and repertoire for pupils from ages 4 to 18. Other courses of study he devised include the musical theatre workshops he led while serving as composer-in-residence for Boston Children's Theatre and Music for Autism International as well as the vocal coaching sessions and classes he taught as music specialist for the Experimental Theatre of Vassar College.
George currently works for the Greenwich Public School system where he not only teaches general music classes and accompanies the choral and band programs, but has also crafted a virtual syllabus for elementary online learning involving studio composition classes and a series of narrative educational media. In addition to administrating his own online studio, George is a piano and voice instructor for the Larchmont Music Academy and the Darien Arts Center, a substitute vocal mentor for the Grammy Award-winning National Children's Chorus, a contracted music director for Long Lake Camp for the Arts, and an accompanist and vocal coach for A Class Act NY and the DREAM Charter Schools.
Jackson, age 6
Mr. George is a really good teacher. I can play piano with both of my hands now!
Charlotte, age 21
Andrew, age 57
George is a phenomenal teacher who works to meet your goals, needs, and skill level. He pushes me to challenge myself every lesson while staying encouraging and upbeat. From his individualized lesson plans to his positive attitude, is clear that George cares about his students and thrives on our success. I couldn’t be more grateful to have him as a teacher.
George has a remarkable ability to blend the physical and theoretical aspects of vocal production into an exciting and enjoyable practice. I have had the good fortune to study voice under some very accomplished teachers with decades of experience and George is certainly their equal. He is knowledgeable and energetic and presents solid vocal concepts in a joyful environment.
George leading the Camerata Choir on organ at Skinner Hall
