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Monday 15 July
Tuesday 16 July

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Keynote Speaker:
Carmel Dean





Our keynote speaker, Carmel Dean, is an award-winning Australian-born Music Director, Arranger, Supervisor, and composer, and a powerhouse figure on Broadway. With a deep passion for the art form and a strong belief in the power of music to connect audiences to story, Carmel will inspire, inform and energise. 

In her keynote presentation, Carmel delves into the intricate and complex process of creating new musicals, demystifying and unpacking the various roles and stages of development. Passionate about craft, Carmel will speak to the precision and detail required to shape music that tells stories effectively. She will shed light on the often elusive role of the Musical Arranger and its increasing significance in new contemporary musicals. VCA Music Theatre students will bring Carmel’s stories and anecdotes to life, by performing songs she has worked on. 

With a distinguished career working on Broadway, the West End, and Australia, Carmel’s keynote will offer insights that have huge relevance both to local leaders and creators, and those working at the international level. 




BIOGRAPHY
Carmel Dean is an award-winning, in-demand and multi-faceted musician working in the theatre industry across Broadway/New York, the UK and Australia.  

As a Musical Supervisor and/or Arranger her recent projects include the new Broadway musical The Notebook, with music by Ingrid Michaelson, and the recent Broadway revival of Funny Girl starring Lea Michele. Carmel was also Musical Director for the Broadway musical If/Then, starring Idina Menzel, and was Music Supervisor of the subsequent National Tour.  

Her first musical as composer, Renascence, was produced Off-Broadway by the award-winning Transport Group and was named Best New Musical at the 2018 Off-Broadway Alliance Awards. Her song cycle Well-Behaved Women, featuring powerful historic women characters, premiered to sold-out performances at Joe’s Pub in New York City, and subsequently received a critically-acclaimed run in Sydney, Australia.  

Carmel is a native of Perth, Western Australia, and received a B.Mus. from the Western Australian Academy of Performing Arts (WAAPA). In 2001 she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in the United States, and subsequently graduated from NYU’s Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program with a MFA in Musical Theatre Writing. She is a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Workshop. 

Carmel currently resides in New York City. 
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