Norman Mathews

Norman Mathews (September 12, 1942) is an Italian-American composer, playwright, librettist, and author. He is a composer of musical theater, opera, art songs, choral music, and instrumental and symphonic works. His work has been performed at the Kennedy Center, on radio, and at theatres and concert venues worldwide.

Early life and education

Mathews was born in Rockford, Illinois. His father, Matthew Cancelose, was a supervisor in a toy-manufacturing company. His mother, the former Mary Giovingo, was a department store clerk. He had one younger brother, Larry. Mathews grew up in a close-knit Sicilian-American family. Their entertainment was having the extended family get-together on Friday and Saturday nights and sharing funny and sad experiences each member experienced. He was mesmerized by those stories, so he developed an interest in radio dramas. He eventually fell in love with the genre of one-person plays in the 1970s because they reminded him of his family gatherings. As a child, Mathews developed an interest in piano and studied piano for several years. He graduated from East High School in 1960, where he appeared in theater productions and was president of the French club.

From 1960-1962, he attended Denver University, where he studied business administration and psychology. He transferred to New York University in 1962 but left school in his junior year to pursue a career as a dancer. Mathews began his career as a Broadway and film dancer-singer-actor.

Mathews studied ballet at the Ballet Arts School in Carnegie Hall and the American Ballet Theater School. During his studies, he supported himself as an editor for Dance Magazine.

After a back injury, Mathews returned to school and earned a B.A. in music from Hunter College and an M.A. in music from New York University.

Career

Dancer

Mathews landed his first dance job at the Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera in 1966. He then had a stint at the St. Louis Municipal Opera and a tour of the musical Half a Sixpence. In 1967, he toured with the national company of Hello, Dolly! starring Dorothy Lamour. He played several small roles in a Canadian tour of Irma La Douce, starring Pat Suzuki. In 1968, Mathews was hired as a dancer in the film version of Hello, Dolly! starring Barbra Streisand.

In 1969, Mathews made his Broadway debut in the Tom Jones and Harvey Schmidt musical Celebration. During this course, he met his long-time partner Todd Lehman, an assistant to the musical’s producer. Shortly after the show closed, Mathews injured his back and returned to school to complete his degrees.

Musician

In graduate school, Mathews formed a classical piano partnership with fellow pianist Sarah Renberg. They performed nationwide at venues, including the Lincoln Center Library, Trinity Church Noontime Concerts, the American Landmarks Festival, Mohonk Mountain House, and the Rockford Theater. During this period, Mathews also began teaching piano and music theory.

Composer

Classical works

Mathews began private composition and orchestration lessons with Richard Danielpour, Charles Turner, and Richard Hundley.

Mathews’ first art-song cycle to Walt Whitman's poetry, Songs of the Poet, was premiered by Munich Opera’s Gregory Wiest in Germany. The cycle was featured in an American Composers Orchestra program entitled Whitman and Music. Selections from the cycle were performed at the Kennedy Center in 2003. Rossetti Songs, a cycle set to poems by Christina Rossetti for mezzo-soprano, piano, cello, and flute, was recorded by Navona Records and broadcast on Hawaii Public Radio. The work's piano/vocal version was performed at the Source Song Festival in Minneapolis.

Sonnet No. 61 (Shakespeare), a work for chorus, piano, and oboe, won the 2011 Vocal Essence award in Minneapolis, where it was performed and recorded.

Ye Are Many—They Are Few, Cantata for a Just World, for four voices and piano, was performed by Vox3 at Chicago’s Cultural Center in 2014.

His opera, La Lupa, inspired by the Giovanni Verga novella, for which he wrote the music and the libretto, was showcased by the Ft. Worth Opera Company. His choral works received both Vocal Essence and Project Encore Awards.

His string quartet was performed by ACM in Chicago.

Musical Theater

You Might as Well Live is a one-person musical based on the life and writings of Dorothy Parker, for which Mathews wrote the score and the book. It has starred Tony Award winner Michele Pawk and Broadway and cabaret star Karen Mason. It appeared at the York Theater in Manhattan, the Harris Theater of Music and Dance in Chicago, the New York Musical Theater Festival, and the Orlando Shakespeare Theater. The musical received a grant from the Vogelstein Foundation.

Lost Empires is a musical based on the J. B. Priestley novel, with music by Mathews, book by Mathews and Todd Lehman, and lyrics by poet Patty Seyburn. It was performed at Shorter University, where Mathews was composer-in-residence.

Cabaret

Somebody Write Me a Song is a cabaret revue Mathews wrote with lyricist Patty Seyburn. It was performed and recorded at New York’s Donnell Library, starring Tony- and Grammy-Nominee Liz Callaway, Tony Award winner Debbie Gravitte, Barbra Streisand impersonator Steven Brinberg, and Peter Samuel.

Plays

Drone is a play about America’s drone warfare. It was performed at the Dayton Playhouse’s Future Fest.

Author/journalist

Mathews is the author of The Wrong Side of the Room: A Life in Music Theater, an autobiography that chronicles a boy who lacked self-assurance but had larger-than-life dreams. He let others discourage him from pursuing his interests to his detriment. After severe psychological issues and near suicide, the boy pulls himself together to build a meaningful life in the arts and to find fulfilling love.

Mathews has been the News Editor of Dance Magazine, Managing Editor of Sylvia Porter’s Personal Finance Magazine, and Editorial Director of Merrill Lynch internal publications. His articles have been published on several platforms, including Common Dreams, the Times of Sicily, and LA Progressive.

Recognition

Mathews is a recipient of numerous awards, foundation grants, and commissions. His play, Drone, was selected as a semifinalist for the Dayton (Ohio) Theater’s Future Fest. Ye Are Many—They Are Few, Cantata for a Just World, for four singers and piano, received a Puffin Foundation grant. Vox3. Sonnet No. 61 (part of a 3-sonnet cycle to Shakespeare, entitled Love’s Not Time’s Fool for mixed choir, piano, and oboe and flute obbligato) was the winner of the American Composers’ Forum 2011, Vocal Essence Award. Drone also won the 2019 New Works of Merit Playwriting Contest and was the 2018 Screencraft Stage Play Competition quarterfinalist. His song, The Last Invocation, received the Recognition of Excellence award at the Fifth Diana Barnhart American Art Song Competition.

Personal life

Since April 2014, Mathews has been married to his long-time partner, Todd Lehman, who died in December 2019. He is passionate about cooking and publishes scores of original and family recipes on his blog.

Mathews’ art songs are published by Graphite Publishing. His collection of ballads, Sixteen Jazz Ballads (six instrumental and ten vocal), composed over the course of thirty years, was published by Sheet Music Plus.