A CHANCE ENCOUNTER at the RED LION INN TURNED AN 11-yr. old PIANIST INTO A PLAY'S COMPOSER
JANUARY 2025 - TERRA NOVA by TED TALLY
By Matt Martinez, The Berkshire Eagle Jan 10, 2025
Dylan Conuel, 11, of Pittsfield, an up-and-coming composer from Pittsfield with 23 preludes under his belt and a voracious appetite for the old masters, plays the piano at the Red Lion Inn.
STOCKBRIDGE — If it wasn't for a chance encounter at the Red Lion Inn in November, Deborah Burke may never have found the score for her next stage play.
It came when Burke, creative director of the Town Players of New Canaan (Conn.), was on a one-day vacation with her husband in the Berkshires. She wanted to visit the historic inn — it’s just “one of those places you have to go” — in part because of her affinity for old buildings and architecture.
As she was strolling around the confines, she began hearing “fabulous” music emanating from one of the hotel’s grand pianos. Soon her husband had tapped her on the shoulder and told her she had to see who the player was. When she rounded the corner, she could hardly believe the young player on the bench — 11-year-old Dylan Conuel, an up-and-coming composer from Pittsfield with 23 preludes under his belt, a voracious appetite for the old masters and an innate feel for melody and arrangement. For Burke, it was practically a godsend — she's staging Ted Tally's 1977 play "Terra Nova" in February, and had been looking for someone to evoke its setting's frozen wastes and howling winds with music. In Dylan, she knew immediately she'd found just the composer.
Dylan’s journey to mastering the piano began about a year and a half ago, begotten by prior experiences as a percussionist and glockenspiel player when he was in 4th grade. He’s still a student — albeit, one with a knack for improvisation — with a great deal left to learn about the ivories. He now plays as often as he can, he said — up to three hours a day, as long as he doesn’t have homework to do. His latest extracurricular assignment breathing life into the tundras of Antarctica might seem like a herculean task to some — but his approach to scoring the play for Burke has been as straightforward as the results have been mystifying. “I try to put my head into that mindset and just try to play the notes that I think would fit for the scene,” Dylan said — that meant crafting some pieces with “mysterious, sparse high notes,” for example.
Since Dylan began playing the piano, his parents have lightheartedly suggested some different musical influences — his father, Steve Conuel, will sometimes ask him to bust out some Jerry Lee Lewis or Professor Longhair tunes. But Dylan, while respectful of the suggestion, doesn’t really have much interest in it — he’s busy digesting the works of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Frédéric Chopin and Johann Sebastian Bach to study what makes them tick. In truth, it’s led to a bit of a reversal of roles — Steve said he’ll regularly teach them about things he’s learned about the classical masters, and give them recommendations to listen to contemporary artists like Eric Christian.
Dylan Conuel plays as often as he can, he said — up to three hours a day, as long as he doesn’t have homework to do. Dylan’s mother, Tracy Conuel, said she can’t even watch movies the same way anymore now. “I’m hearing these things now that I wouldn’t have known — like, with John Williams, I can imagine now when I hear it, ‘Oh my God, this is the score in Home Alone!’ and then we’ll talk about it,” Tracy Conuel said. “So he’s just educating us; we’re proud of him.”
Funnily enough, a motion picture is what got the ball rolling in the first place — Steve Conuel said Dylan heard Für Elise in a movie, then taught it to himself on an old Casio keyboard in their basement using a Youtube video for guidance. “When he memorized that, that’s when we were like, “okay, we’ve got to get this dude some real lessons,’” Steve Conuel said. Those lessons came first from Kathy Garson, a music teacher in the Pittsfield Public Schools who taught him how to read music and form his fingers properly — she would retire at the end of his fifth grade year. Dylan then began attending Berkshire Music School, where instructor Nicki Ta told the Conuels that he was “uniquely talented.” That led to lessons with another teacher, Manhattan-based Anastasia Dedik — an international award-winning pianist who is teaching him via Facetime. Dylan has aspirations of going to The Juilliard School when he’s older, and already has an answer to the age-old question of what he wants to be when he grows up: a classical composer. With all that in mind, Dylan absorbs quite a bit just by listening to music and studying theory. He’s memorized all the keys on the piano, and is learning to form them into expressive chords. He uses a working knowledge of music theory to craft melodies extemporaneously.
Part of Dylan’s process for composing his own work starts with picking up “styles” and “textures” from music that he listens to and adding his own style to bits he finds interesting. “When I look at the scores, I try to look at what could be better,” Dylan said. “I use maybe a phrase of one of the corrected things that I thought would be cooler if it did [something different], and I use some of that in my own music.” A much larger part of his process comes from an innate sense of melody and mood — he often sits down and just plays, he said, holding onto a progression that he thinks can be fine-tuned to perfection. “Usually, I try to improvise on something, or some chords that I really like,” Dylan said. “Then I write it down and keep making it more perfect in my mind — and try to make it as refined as possible, just from a short improvisation that I made up.
As far as scoring a stage play goes, there are probably easier ones to start with than “Terra Nova.” The play is told mostly in reverse from the deathbed of its tragic hero, the real-life English explorer Robert Falcon Scott, who raced an expedition of Norwegian explorers to the South Pole in the early 1910s. In a series of flashbacks, Scott is visited by his rival, Roald Amundsen, and his wife Kathleen, half a world away as he faces down his final moments. Even the play’s synopsis conjures images of barren wastes, howling winds and a throughline of hubris, folly and honor. In short: heavy themes — and especially hard to transpose into pure instrumentation. But Burke said the studio samples that the Conuels sent her weeks later hit the mark splendidly. Dylan recorded a number of tracks in a studio space at Berkshire Community College, Steve Conuel said. Dylan was tasked with composing pieces to be played sparingly during pivotal parts of the play — the second act begins with a redolent, nostalgia-tinged waltz that sinks into a minor key as its doomed main character loses its thread, for instance. Dylan also composed a love theme, a track meant to emulate “trudging through the snow,” and other pieces meant to carry a “haunting sound without being eerie,” per Burke’s instructions. To say that the 11-year-old exceeded her expectations in all the deliverables would be an understatement: One of the melodies was so striking, she said, that she claimed it was on par with John Williams and John Barry — two of the most decorated film score composers of all time, respectively. But when it came to describing Dylan’s innate brilliance and talent for music, Burke didn’t shy away from even loftier, hybrid comparisons. “He’s a little Mozart,” Burke said. “A little John Barry-Mozart.”
The play will be staged at the Powerhouse Performing Arts Center with nine shows over three weekends, beginning on Feb. 21 and ending on March 9. Conuel won’t be playing the score live during the performances — rather, a recording will be played when needed, Burke said. The Conuels plan to see the play eventually during the run. Steve and Tracy Conuel’s reactions have been immense pride, naturally, while Dylan sees the play as a great opportunity for his musical career. Burke said she also plans to ask them if Dylan would be available for a “talkback” during an upcoming performance. In her mind, this could be the first instance of exposure for a great talent still developing. “I’ll be so glad to have discovered him when he’s an Oscar winner,” Burke said.
What: "Terra Nova"
Who: The Town Players of New Canaan with score by Dylan Conuel
Where: Powerhouse Theatre in Waveny Park, 679 South Avenue, New Canaan, CT
When: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 21, 22, 28 and March 1, 7 and 8; 2 p.m. Feb. 23, March 2 and 9.
Tickets: $25-$35
Information and reservations: 203-594-3636; tpnc.org
Matt Martinez can be reached at mmartinez@berkshireeagle.com
Dylan Conuel, 11, of Pittsfield, an up-and-coming composer from Pittsfield with 23 preludes under his belt and a voracious appetite for the old masters, plays the piano at the Red Lion Inn.
STOCKBRIDGE — If it wasn't for a chance encounter at the Red Lion Inn in November, Deborah Burke may never have found the score for her next stage play.
It came when Burke, creative director of the Town Players of New Canaan (Conn.), was on a one-day vacation with her husband in the Berkshires. She wanted to visit the historic inn — it’s just “one of those places you have to go” — in part because of her affinity for old buildings and architecture.
As she was strolling around the confines, she began hearing “fabulous” music emanating from one of the hotel’s grand pianos. Soon her husband had tapped her on the shoulder and told her she had to see who the player was. When she rounded the corner, she could hardly believe the young player on the bench — 11-year-old Dylan Conuel, an up-and-coming composer from Pittsfield with 23 preludes under his belt, a voracious appetite for the old masters and an innate feel for melody and arrangement. For Burke, it was practically a godsend — she's staging Ted Tally's 1977 play "Terra Nova" in February, and had been looking for someone to evoke its setting's frozen wastes and howling winds with music. In Dylan, she knew immediately she'd found just the composer.
Dylan’s journey to mastering the piano began about a year and a half ago, begotten by prior experiences as a percussionist and glockenspiel player when he was in 4th grade. He’s still a student — albeit, one with a knack for improvisation — with a great deal left to learn about the ivories. He now plays as often as he can, he said — up to three hours a day, as long as he doesn’t have homework to do. His latest extracurricular assignment breathing life into the tundras of Antarctica might seem like a herculean task to some — but his approach to scoring the play for Burke has been as straightforward as the results have been mystifying. “I try to put my head into that mindset and just try to play the notes that I think would fit for the scene,” Dylan said — that meant crafting some pieces with “mysterious, sparse high notes,” for example.
Since Dylan began playing the piano, his parents have lightheartedly suggested some different musical influences — his father, Steve Conuel, will sometimes ask him to bust out some Jerry Lee Lewis or Professor Longhair tunes. But Dylan, while respectful of the suggestion, doesn’t really have much interest in it — he’s busy digesting the works of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Frédéric Chopin and Johann Sebastian Bach to study what makes them tick. In truth, it’s led to a bit of a reversal of roles — Steve said he’ll regularly teach them about things he’s learned about the classical masters, and give them recommendations to listen to contemporary artists like Eric Christian.
Dylan Conuel plays as often as he can, he said — up to three hours a day, as long as he doesn’t have homework to do. Dylan’s mother, Tracy Conuel, said she can’t even watch movies the same way anymore now. “I’m hearing these things now that I wouldn’t have known — like, with John Williams, I can imagine now when I hear it, ‘Oh my God, this is the score in Home Alone!’ and then we’ll talk about it,” Tracy Conuel said. “So he’s just educating us; we’re proud of him.”
Funnily enough, a motion picture is what got the ball rolling in the first place — Steve Conuel said Dylan heard Für Elise in a movie, then taught it to himself on an old Casio keyboard in their basement using a Youtube video for guidance. “When he memorized that, that’s when we were like, “okay, we’ve got to get this dude some real lessons,’” Steve Conuel said. Those lessons came first from Kathy Garson, a music teacher in the Pittsfield Public Schools who taught him how to read music and form his fingers properly — she would retire at the end of his fifth grade year. Dylan then began attending Berkshire Music School, where instructor Nicki Ta told the Conuels that he was “uniquely talented.” That led to lessons with another teacher, Manhattan-based Anastasia Dedik — an international award-winning pianist who is teaching him via Facetime. Dylan has aspirations of going to The Juilliard School when he’s older, and already has an answer to the age-old question of what he wants to be when he grows up: a classical composer. With all that in mind, Dylan absorbs quite a bit just by listening to music and studying theory. He’s memorized all the keys on the piano, and is learning to form them into expressive chords. He uses a working knowledge of music theory to craft melodies extemporaneously.
Part of Dylan’s process for composing his own work starts with picking up “styles” and “textures” from music that he listens to and adding his own style to bits he finds interesting. “When I look at the scores, I try to look at what could be better,” Dylan said. “I use maybe a phrase of one of the corrected things that I thought would be cooler if it did [something different], and I use some of that in my own music.” A much larger part of his process comes from an innate sense of melody and mood — he often sits down and just plays, he said, holding onto a progression that he thinks can be fine-tuned to perfection. “Usually, I try to improvise on something, or some chords that I really like,” Dylan said. “Then I write it down and keep making it more perfect in my mind — and try to make it as refined as possible, just from a short improvisation that I made up.
As far as scoring a stage play goes, there are probably easier ones to start with than “Terra Nova.” The play is told mostly in reverse from the deathbed of its tragic hero, the real-life English explorer Robert Falcon Scott, who raced an expedition of Norwegian explorers to the South Pole in the early 1910s. In a series of flashbacks, Scott is visited by his rival, Roald Amundsen, and his wife Kathleen, half a world away as he faces down his final moments. Even the play’s synopsis conjures images of barren wastes, howling winds and a throughline of hubris, folly and honor. In short: heavy themes — and especially hard to transpose into pure instrumentation. But Burke said the studio samples that the Conuels sent her weeks later hit the mark splendidly. Dylan recorded a number of tracks in a studio space at Berkshire Community College, Steve Conuel said. Dylan was tasked with composing pieces to be played sparingly during pivotal parts of the play — the second act begins with a redolent, nostalgia-tinged waltz that sinks into a minor key as its doomed main character loses its thread, for instance. Dylan also composed a love theme, a track meant to emulate “trudging through the snow,” and other pieces meant to carry a “haunting sound without being eerie,” per Burke’s instructions. To say that the 11-year-old exceeded her expectations in all the deliverables would be an understatement: One of the melodies was so striking, she said, that she claimed it was on par with John Williams and John Barry — two of the most decorated film score composers of all time, respectively. But when it came to describing Dylan’s innate brilliance and talent for music, Burke didn’t shy away from even loftier, hybrid comparisons. “He’s a little Mozart,” Burke said. “A little John Barry-Mozart.”
The play will be staged at the Powerhouse Performing Arts Center with nine shows over three weekends, beginning on Feb. 21 and ending on March 9. Conuel won’t be playing the score live during the performances — rather, a recording will be played when needed, Burke said. The Conuels plan to see the play eventually during the run. Steve and Tracy Conuel’s reactions have been immense pride, naturally, while Dylan sees the play as a great opportunity for his musical career. Burke said she also plans to ask them if Dylan would be available for a “talkback” during an upcoming performance. In her mind, this could be the first instance of exposure for a great talent still developing. “I’ll be so glad to have discovered him when he’s an Oscar winner,” Burke said.
What: "Terra Nova"
Who: The Town Players of New Canaan with score by Dylan Conuel
Where: Powerhouse Theatre in Waveny Park, 679 South Avenue, New Canaan, CT
When: 7:30 p.m. Feb. 21, 22, 28 and March 1, 7 and 8; 2 p.m. Feb. 23, March 2 and 9.
Tickets: $25-$35
Information and reservations: 203-594-3636; tpnc.org
Matt Martinez can be reached at mmartinez@berkshireeagle.com
48 HOURS TO OPENING
OCTOBER, 2024 - KATE HAMILL's DRACULA
It’s Wednesday, October 9th, and despite their show having major horror themes, the cast and crew of Kate Hamill’s Dracula are not terrified. Whereas the show’s characters navigate the evils of bloodthirsty vampires, offstage, actors, stage management and technicians laugh, snack or do the day’s Wordle Sure, there is talk of if everyone feels fully prepared to open for performances in just two days’ time, but the overall atmosphere is one of positivity and excitement, even if people get progressively drowsy as rehearsal wraps up around 11 p.m.
As I await the beginning of the evening’s run-through to begin, the action onstage is much less dramatic than the story the actors will soon put on: mostly discussions of logistics, such as who will bring off what set pieces between scenes, as the production does not use a formal running crew. It’s a synergy you don’t see in larger-scale productions with actors more removed from the technical process. Here, it’s a group effort not merely to perform the show, but also to literally make it happen.
During this hour prior to the run-through, I get most of my “who’s who” and intel on the state of the show from Zachary Slocumb, a recent college graduate on his third show with TPNC. He graciously answers my questions even while busying himself on his Macbook Pro. Something of a digital media expert, he tracks down actor headshots for the theater lobby, puts finishing touches on the show’s program and contacts local outlets to get the word out to potential audience members. He gives a shudder when I ask if he auditioned for the show, explaining his preference for offstage roles. Ironically, one of the stars of Dracula, Nova Hall (“Van Helsing”), is TPNC co-president, most often found producing and directing rather than acting.
Though a fairly simple set on the surface, a few artistic elements truly elevate the scenic design. Projection designer Jac-que Robinson has crafted a masterful (and very helpful) series of scene title cards in the style of silent black and white horror films, guiding the audience through changing locations and the passage of time. Meanwhile, actress Kim Wood (“Renfield”), in a preview of the maniacal glory I am about to witness unfurling onstage, begins getting into character by scribbling the insane ramblings of her asylum-bound character on the set in chalk.
The humor-meets-horror, feminist-without-being-preachy material and execution of this adaptation is a treat (as long as you aren’t too squeamish to stomach the sight of pooling fake blood, highly visible even from the back row).
This groundbreaking twist on a classic Halloween story is a must-see!
By,
Zoe Kallenekos
As I await the beginning of the evening’s run-through to begin, the action onstage is much less dramatic than the story the actors will soon put on: mostly discussions of logistics, such as who will bring off what set pieces between scenes, as the production does not use a formal running crew. It’s a synergy you don’t see in larger-scale productions with actors more removed from the technical process. Here, it’s a group effort not merely to perform the show, but also to literally make it happen.
During this hour prior to the run-through, I get most of my “who’s who” and intel on the state of the show from Zachary Slocumb, a recent college graduate on his third show with TPNC. He graciously answers my questions even while busying himself on his Macbook Pro. Something of a digital media expert, he tracks down actor headshots for the theater lobby, puts finishing touches on the show’s program and contacts local outlets to get the word out to potential audience members. He gives a shudder when I ask if he auditioned for the show, explaining his preference for offstage roles. Ironically, one of the stars of Dracula, Nova Hall (“Van Helsing”), is TPNC co-president, most often found producing and directing rather than acting.
Though a fairly simple set on the surface, a few artistic elements truly elevate the scenic design. Projection designer Jac-que Robinson has crafted a masterful (and very helpful) series of scene title cards in the style of silent black and white horror films, guiding the audience through changing locations and the passage of time. Meanwhile, actress Kim Wood (“Renfield”), in a preview of the maniacal glory I am about to witness unfurling onstage, begins getting into character by scribbling the insane ramblings of her asylum-bound character on the set in chalk.
The humor-meets-horror, feminist-without-being-preachy material and execution of this adaptation is a treat (as long as you aren’t too squeamish to stomach the sight of pooling fake blood, highly visible even from the back row).
This groundbreaking twist on a classic Halloween story is a must-see!
By,
Zoe Kallenekos