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ROBBY MERKIN
is a composer, arranger, music director, and producer who has worked in virtually every corner of the entertainment industry. For the past decade and a half his career has focused primarily on material for children; Robby earned five Emmy nominations as musical director of SESAME STREET and served as music director and arranger for the Double-Platinum, Academy Award and Grammy winning Disney feature THE LITTLE MERMAID. He designed and created web radio stations for NICK Jr. ONLINE and has composed musicals for TADA, New York's only all-children repertory theater company. Recently he produced, arranged, and played all the instruments on HEY, MR. DJ!, the first pop record performed by THE BROADWAY KIDS. Currently he is composer, music director, sound designer, and voice of the host for www.ONEMORESTORY.com, a virtual library for early readers.
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In addition, he is developing a music driven animated show for tweens, and serving as curriculum and content consultant for Noggin's JACK'S BIG MUSIC SHOW.
In a somewhat more adult vein, Robby was orchestrator and music director for both the stage and screen productions of LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS. He has arranged and/or music directed dozens of musicals inuding BUDDY (The Buddy Holly Story), ELVIS: A MUSICAL CELEBRATION, Ray Davies' 80 DAYS,
Randy Newman's THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE,, and recently, NEWYORKERS: A MUSICAL COLLAGE at the Manhattan Theater Club. He created the definitive version of Robby Bensons musical OPEN HEART, and is currently music supervising an adaptation of THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE and RADICALS, a musical about student unrest and social upheaval in the '60's. He has composed, arranged, produced and/or conducted for the Tonight Show, The Joan Rivers Show, The Merv Griffin Show, Saturday Night Live, and Walt Disney TV, and scored the teen soap opera, SWANS CROSSING.
Robby created and taught courses on the history of rocknroll at Queens College, was a member of the seminal folk-rock band PEARLS BEFORE SWINE, and was a governor of the New York Chapter of NARAS (National Academy Of Recording Arts And Sciences, the organization that sponsors the Grammies). Prior to that he served as composer-in-residence for several New York repertory and dance companies. He has won numerous ASCAP awards and Meet the Composer grants, taught music theory at Queens College, the Graduate Center, and Montclair State University, and lectured on contemporary music at Cooper Union.
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