CINCINNATI — More than 100 University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music students take the stage Sunday at New York City's iconic Carnegie Hall to honor a prolific alumnus and raise money for scholarships.
Stephen Flaherty, class of 1982, has written the music for hit Broadway shows like "Ragtime," "Seussical The Musical," "Once On This Island," "Lucky Stiff" and the movie "Anastasia." With his writing partner lyricist Lynn Ahrens, he is considered one of the foremost Broadway composers.
"The two of them have to be the most prolific team since Rogers and Hammerstein," said fellow CCM alumnus Jim Semmelman. "I think their shows will last as long as theirs, too."
Semmelman is one of the producers of the one-night-only event this weekend at Carnegie Hall, featuring several other of the school's alumni who have made names for themselves on Broadway.
"We've got two buses and they're filled with students and musical instruments and props and puppets and all kinds of things," Semmelman said. "It's like doing a small Broadway show."
Those buses left the uptown campus Thursday morning.
"I probably will cry," laughed third-year stage management Master's student Kali Ashurst. "I still can't fully comprehend that I'm making my New York City debut as a graduate student here, at Carnegie Hall."
Ashurst has been helping coordinate the load-in and rehearsals for months. The trip includes about 60 musicians, more than 30 musical theatre students plus ballerinas and other stage management students.
A kid from Pittsburgh
"I feel like this is my religion — not in a Jesus sort of way — but it's the thing that I find meaningful in my life and I knew from a very young age that I wanted to dedicate my life to it," Flaherty said.
Flaherty grew up in Pittsburgh and remembers taking a bus to his audition for CCM, his mom by his side for the ride. It's a memory he cherishes, having recently lost his mom.
"When I first saw Cincinnati, I saw it with my mom ... it was my first audition for anything ever," he said. "She was so patient. She has always been my biggest supporter and that fact that she's not there [Sunday] is strange, but I have to believe she is there."
Flaherty wrote his first musical at age 14, about his hometown. He said it was set in different Pittsburgh neighborhoods and each song was a different style, written in different color ink. He studied composition at UC and moved to New York after graduation.
He met writing partner Lynn Ahrens at the BMI Musical Theatre Workshop. Together, they've written musicals and for film and television. In fact, "Seussical" is now one of the most-produced shows in the country.
"For all of our early shows, I would use CCM alumni [for demos] and Lynn said, 'Where do you find these people? They're amazing?'" Flaherty told WCPO. "And I would say, 'Are you kidding me? We went to school together.'"
But Flaherty credits one longtime, loved supporter of Cincinnati arts for keeping his dream alive and helping foster his collegiate success.
"Patricia Corbett, who was an amazing support of the arts, gave me a scholarship that allowed me to go to the school," he said. "And without that scholarship, I wouldn't have had access, I wouldn't have been able to start, let alone finish."
"The next Stephen Flahertys"
Before Carnegie Hall, Semmelman and his co-producers staged a tribute to Flaherty at CCM in September 2022 featuring many of the same alumni reprising their roles this weekend in New York.
"I have to say I was nervous about doing it in Cincinnati," Flaherty said. "I hadn't been really at the campus for maybe 20 years or so, but it's a big deal. It's like your life flashing in front of you, only people are signing."
His experience as a student on scholarship has helped make these productions fundraisers to benefit current and future students — funding financial aid and other student projects in the college. The production itself isn't cheap, but producers believe it's a unique way to reach alumni and create new donors.
"I would love to raise at least a million dollars from this event for CCM," said senior director of development Elaine M. Cox. "Philanthropy has made this possible up to this point, but when the curtain comes down Sunday, this is just the end of Act 1."
"What's unique especially about the musical theatre program is that we were really the first in the country to have one," said CCM interim dean Jonathan Kregor. "We want to find the next Stephen Flahertys in the class of students that we're bringing and in the class of students that we'll have 20 years from now."
Flaherty knows the difference financial support can make for a kid chasing a dream and a calling.
"It makes all the difference in the world, it gives you access," he said. "I think we're going to show New York City and the world at large like here we are, CCM is like a force to be reckoned with."
Tickets to the event in New York City are still available.
