Award-winning songwriter Joey Contreras, a 2020-2021 Roe Green Visiting Artist, will present a virtual Songwriting Master Class on Thursday, January 28 at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom. Contreras will share his knowledge and experiences while offering guidance to help you build confidence as a songwriter. Students can submit works in progress to receive feedback in a safe, collaborative space, as well as learn the basics of song structure, the art of storytelling and the importance of honed in intention. Contreras's musical "In Pieces" was presented by the school in December.
Students interested in submitting work for masterclass feedback consideration should send an MP3 and lyric sheet to assistant@joeycontreras.com. The piece does not need to be a complete work - a sketch, demo, half baked idea is absolutely fine.
How To Attend
A link to the Zoom meeting will be shared prior to the event. Please check back.
ֱ Joey Contreras
Joey Contreras is a musical theatre and pop songwriter originally from California. He is internationally known for his first album Love Me, Love Me Not, which featured an all-star lineup of Broadway talent. In 2014, his second and more pop-focused album, Young Kind of Love, immediately debuted in the iTunes Pop Charts. Out Magazine labeled the sophomore effort “sexy and catchy,” and branded Joey a “Broadway-pop crossover extraordinaire.” In 2016, Joey wrote the music and lyrics for the Disney Junior animated short, “Kiwi’s First Flight,” featured in the series, “Lights, Camera, Lexi!” In 2019, Joey released his third album, Joyride, which once again landed in the iTunes Pop Charts sparking an artist profile in Huffington Post. His standalone singles, Break from the Line, Wild and a new acoustic arrangement of Love Me, Love Me Not collectively hit over 1 million streams in 2019 alone. In 2020, he released the singles Safer, Even If It Might Hurt Me and a new arrangement of his 2014 song, Another New York Love Story.
Hailed as one of Playbill’s “Contemporary Musical Theatre Songwriters You Should Know,” Joey is a 2018 Jonathan Larson Grant Finalist, and his musicals with bookwriter/lyricist, Kate Thomas, include All the Kids are Doing It (Provincetown Playhouse, Tisch, IWU, O’Neill NMTC Finalist), Forget Me Not (NYTB New Works Series, The Dare Tactic, dir. Catie Davis; Tisch New Studio on Broadway, dir. Ilana Becker) and Elements. He is currently developing Heartbreakers in Hell, a new musical with bookwriter/lyricist Benjamin Halstead, which has a planned premiere with The Rubber City Theatre in September 2021. He also has written the music and lyrics for the song-cycle, In Pieces (originally presented at Lincoln Center), which is now available for licensing and live streaming rights.
As a strong supporter of arts education, Joey has served as Artist-in-Residence with Broadway Dreams Foundation and has contributed original music and arrangements to Broadway in South Africa. He also regularly teaches masterclasses with The Growing Studio in New York. Joey is an alumnus from the NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program (2010 ASCAP Max Dreyfus Scholarship Recipient) and the 2017 Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project.