COMPOSER
Sydney E. Crutcher is a Black theatre artist and composer currently local to Harrisburg, PA. Growing up immersed in theatre and playing cello in the school orchestra, Sydney has an ear for big sounds and sweeping melodies. Prone to accidentally writing in modes, her musical catalog is filled with pop, jazz, blues, theatrical pieces, and short film scores.
As a musical theatre creator and a biracial woman, Sydney is committed to crafting work that balances out a canon that predominantly features white and male bodies on and off stage. She takes care in her works to have at least an equal ratio of female to male parts, and to have leading characters with racially inclusive identities, rather than defaulting to white.
Current projects include Paranoia, a new musical co-written with Jeremy Berdin and Jimmy Kohlmann, which tells the story of a group of stressed out high school seniors looking to escape reality through an intense game of Assassins. Sydney is also serving as co-composer on Artemis Montague’s musical Rhapsody in Sunflower Yellow.
As a proud member of the Maestra and MUSE (Musicians United for Social Equity) directories, Sydney is constantly seeking opportunities for growth and collaboration, participating in countless workshops and creating her own pathways to success.
Sydney composed the original score for the short film "Masks" which went onto win first place in a Micromania Halloween Film Challenge. The score consists of piano, saxophone and percussion.
Sydney's original holiday song "Party of 1" was debuted as part of Next Stage Theatre Company's New Sounds of the Season Cabaret in the winter of 2020. "Party of 1" was selected out of 100+ submissions and was performed by the incredible Haley Swindal.
Sydney grew up in orchestra and began composing while in middle school. In college she wrote this piece as part of her composition class, 2 years later after transferring to Drake this piece was selected for performance in a student composer's recital.
SOUND DESIGN
Below are clips from Sydney's Sound Design of As You Like It, performed at Drake University in 2019. The design for As You Like It featured original compositions to reflect mood and character, in addition to employing many famous (and overdone) love songs, which reinforced the comedy of the melodramatic interpretation of the production. Also below are samples of work from Sydney's Sound Design class where she completed numerous play designs as projects. The Equus sounds are all original music used to create atmosphere, and the Machinal cues are the product of layering and mixing multiple sounds. When composing original music Sydney utilizes both Sibelius and Garage Band.