Biography

Luke is a music director/composer/actor/conductor/sound designer/teacher (all the hats). He's a proud alumnus of Utah State University (BM) and the University of California-Irvine (MFA). He was previously a Visiting Professor of Music at Utah State University and an Assistant Professor of Musical Theatre at the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point. He currently serves as Senior Lead Staff Accompanist and Lecturer of Music at the University of California - Santa Cruz. He has directed productions and musical ensembles in an array of genres across professional venues in Utah, Wisconsin, and California. Previous musical and music direction credits include numerous productions with the Lyric Repertory Company, Musical Theatre West, Pickleville Playhouse, Hale Center Theatre, Centerpoint Legacy Theatre, and dozens of productions and concerts at UCSC, UWSP, UCI, and USU. Some recent theatrical credits include The Marvelous Wonderettes, Twelfth Night, One Man Two Guvnors, Cabaret, The Penelopiad, Legally Blonde, The Music Man, Crazy For You, Big River, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Elephant Man, Sondheim on Sondheim, and Singin' in the Rain. 

 

Luke has orchestrated numerous concerts, conducted numerous choirs, and directed and music directed productions as an undergraduate, after graduation as a visiting professor of music, in the community theatres nearby, and in professional theatres and other various settings. I have been able to cast/employ a number a of actors, singers, and other musicians in tandem with productions I have been involved with. This momentum will only continue to build from here because I believe passionately in what I do. I believe that honest story-telling and beautiful music change lives (it certainly changed mine). I believe that adversity makes us stronger, more compassionate, and more empathetic. I believe that there is no other art form quite like musical theatre that teaches us what it means to be a human being, to explore our own humanity and see ourselves and one another in the lives of the characters in our stories. As we come to understand others, we come to love them, and that love for your fellow-men is a driving force for good in all of us. No matter what background we come from, where we were born, what we believe, or what we look like, theatre can be all-inclusive to the human family. It is these beliefs that drive my pursuit and artistry in musical theatre.  This is worth doing 100%, and no other amount of effort will be sufficient for the change we want to see in the world.