Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program alum Carmel Dean (Cycle 12)
Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program alum Carmel Dean (Cycle 12) was one of the recipients of the 2021 Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award for female composers.
Presented in partnership with New York Stage and Film, the award honors promising female musical theatre composers. Previous winners include Masi Asare, Shaina Taub and other Graduate Musical Theatre Program alums Julianne Wick Davis (Cycle 16), Anna K. Jacobs (Cycle 17), & Rona Sidiqqui (Cycle 21).
Now in its sixth year, the Billie Burke Ziegfeld Award consists of a $5,000 grant and a year of professional mentorship awarded to one or more emerging female composer/lyricists who demonstrate artistic promise in musical theatre composition.
Dean is an Australian-born, New-York based composer/lyricist, musical director, and arranger. Her compositional debut, Renascence, was produced Off-Broadway by Transport Group, and won the 2018 Off-Broadway Alliance Award for Best New Musical. Her song cycle Well-Behaved Women premiered at Joe’s Pub in January 2020 to sold-out performances. She has been commissioned to write a new musical with Mindi Dickstein (Little Women) for New Works Provincetown/Mark Cortale.