SAM CARNER is a New York bookwriter / lyricist. He won the $100,000 Kleban Prize for librettists, the Richard Rodgers Award, and the John Wallowitch Award for songwriters under 40. He and Derek Gregor were among Playbill.com’s 12 “Contemporary Musical Theatre Songwriters You Should Know,” and 13 of their songs have been nominated for MAC Awards. Their musical UNLOCK’D played and extended Off-Broadway run at the Duke Theater and was produced at Houston’s Queensbury Theatre. His musical ISLAND SONG has had over 50 productions internationally, including at the Adirondack Theatre Festival, London’s Stratford Circus, Vanderbilt University, etc. His show SECOND LINE was the 2020 Pace New Musical, having had readings at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, NC State, and more. Sam taught musical theater writing and analysis courses at Yale, NYU, and Temple University.
Musical Creators’ Institute is on a mission to empower early-career musical theater creators. We work to provide unique tools and insights into musical theater form from highly-experienced, top-level musical theater professionals. We aim to do this with a program size that is large enough to provide ample collaborative opportunities and small enough to provide individual attention and at a price-point that will not saddle our students with years of debt.
We believe in fostering a shared language between artists with diverse areas of specialization. This involves supporting the development of multi-disciplinary artists and offering all artists opportunities to expand their areas of knowledge.
The philosophy of program founder, Kleban-Award-winning lyricist-librettist Sam Carner considers all ideas and concepts as viable and views the role of a training program as helping students to express their ideas with greater clarity and to build greater drama around their themes. This leads to a supportive, non-judgmental environment that encourages exploration and artistic passion.
Develop your own unique artistic voice, explore new collaborations and artistic communities, and gain a solid framework in musical theater structure and style.
