Stephen Schwartz

A gifted composer and craftsmanlike lyricist, Stephen Schwartz was a child prodigy who began his musical studies in earnest at Juilliard while still in high school. While attending Carnegie Institute of Technology (now Carnegie-Mellon University), he began writing what was eventually to become "Pippin." Graduating college at age 20, he returned to his native New York and found employment as an artist and repertoire agent at RCA Records. His first stage success came with the title song for the Broadway play "Butterflies Are Free" (1969). A college friend, actor and director Charles Haid, asked Schwartz to work on a stage show based on the New Testament. Schwartz provided a brand-new score (which included the infectious hit "Day by Day") for "Godspell." The show ran for over 1,000 performances off-Broadway before moving to a successful run on Broadway during the 1976-77 season.