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BIO

Philip Orem received his B.M. and M.M. in piano performance from Northwestern University as well as a diploma in Composition and Arranging from the Grove School of Music. While at Northwestern he was elected to Pi Kappa Lambda and The College Register. He has worked on over 130 musical productions including work with Karen Morrow, Charlotte Rae, Sheldon Harnick, Joanna Gleason, and the late Charles Nelson Reilly, Betty Garrett and Georgia Brown. His musical direction of "Working" at Theater West garnered him a nomination for an Artistic Director Achievement Award for Best Musical Director by the Valley Theatre League. For five years he served on the faculty of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts West in Los Angeles and he served as assistant conductor at the Marriott Lincolnshire Theater for seven years.

His compositions and arrangements have been performed and recorded throughout the U.S. and Europe. In April 1996 he was awarded a NEA Meet the Composer/Midwest grant by Arts Midwest to spend five days in Chicago overseeing the premiere of his "Variations" for string orchestra by the McHenry County Youth Orchestra and rehearsals of various choral, concert band and jazz band pieces at local schools and churches in McHenry County. He recently served as an arranger for the debut CD of Chicago cabaret star, Beckie Menzie. He composed the music for Theatre West's Storybook Theatre production of a new children's musical, "The Emperor's New Clothes", which ran for five months and was seen by over 3,500 children and parents and won an Artistic Director Achievement Award from the Valley Theater League for best music in a children's musical. His musical for teens, "Just Too Cool", written with playwright/lyricist Mary Garripoli inaguarated the Youth Theater program at Theater West. Another of his musicals for children, "Alice in Wonderland", played over 60 performances at the Marriott Lincolnshire Theater outside Chicago the fall of 2001. In 2007 he was appointed Composer in Residence for St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Park Ridge, Illinois. SInce 2009 he has been accompanist and resident composer at Congregation Solel in Highland Park.

He is published by Gentry Publications, Dorn Publications Inc., Pan Press, GIA Publications and Brass Chamber Music Press.

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