Craig Bohmler (born April 7, 1956)Hansen, Niels-Henning. "En tilgang til den klassiske Musik". NielsHenning.dk. p. 145. Retrieved August 12, 2019. is an American composer who specializes in opera and musical theater. His musicals include Gunmetal Blues (1991), which has had well over 100 professional productions; Enter the Guardsman (1997), which won the international Musical of the Year award and received an Olivier Award nomination; and Mountain Days (2000), celebrating the life of John Muir. His operas include Riders of the Purple Sage (2017), an adaptation of Zane Grey's book of the same title which was broadcast nationwide in November 2017 and internationally in 2018.
Bohmler has also composed numerous song cycles and other works for solo voice, choral works, and instrumental music pieces,"Contemporary Classical". CraigBohmler.com. Retrieved August 12, 2019."Fountain Hills Theater Opens Gunmetal Blues, 4/26". Broadway World. April 2, 2013. and he is also a musical-theater director, vocal coach, and pianist.
Early life and education Bohmler was born in Houston in 1956.Benbrook, Gil. "A Conversation with Craig Bohmler, composer of Gunmetal Blues, playing now at A/C Theatre Company". PHX Stages. May 18, 2018. He started piano lessons at the age of six, and began composing music as a teenager. He graduated from Dickinson High School in Dickinson, Texas in 1974.Christian, Carol."Dickinson native wins composing competition". Galveston Daily News. September 30, 1996. pp. 1-A, 11-A.
He attended the University of North Texas's College of Music, graduating in 1978 with a Bachelor of Music degree."University of North Texas Alumni Directory, 2010". University of North Texas. p. 368. Retrieved August 12, 2019. In 1980 he received a Master of Music degree in piano performance from the University of Houston, where he studied piano and composition with Carlisle Floyd, who became his composition mentor.Holliday, Thomas. Falling Up: The Days and Nights of Carlisle Floyd, The Authorized Biography. Syracuse University Press, 2013. pp. 303–304.
Career 1981 to 1999 From 1981 through 1984, Bohmler was both a pianist and, beginning as an apprentice, vocal coach at the Houston Opera Studio of the Houston Grand Opera."Studio Alumni". Houston Grand Opera. Retrieved August 9, 2019."Meet Craig Bohmler". VoyagePhoenix. May 22, 2018. Afterwards, he was invited to the Banff Center for the Arts in Canada as a composer-in-residence, and then became musical director for the winter program there for the following three years."Craig Bohmler". Soma International Foundation. Retrieved August 12, 2019."Faculty Artist Series: Music for Awhile". Rice University, Shepherd School of Music. March 25, 1987. His first opera, The Harlot and the Monk, was staged at Banff in February 1985;Griffel, Margaret Ross. Operas in English: A Dictionary. Scarecrow Press, 2012. p. 214. it is a one-act comic opera with a libretto by James Howley, based on an 8th-century Indian play.
In his last term at Banff he met musical-theater actress and lyricist Marion Adler, and turned his sights to musical theater composition, collaborating with her on his first musical, Gunmetal Blues, a spoof of 1940s private-eye flicks with a book by Scott Wentworth..Boehm, Mike. "Revisiting of Romance". Los Angeles Times. October 30, 2000. Via a phone call by Carlisle Floyd, the musical was workshopped in 1989 at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center in Connecticut. It premiered at the Phoenix Little Theatre in 1991"Gunmetal Blues". AboutTheArtists.com. May 1991."Gunmetal Blues". Samuel French. Retrieved August 12, 2019. and subsequently had over 100 professional productions in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Japan,"Gunmetal Blues". NAMT.org. Retrieved August 12, 2019. including an Off-Broadway production by the Amas Musical Theatre at Theater Off Park in April–May 1992,Holden, Stephen. "Theater in Review". New York Times. April 8, 1992."Theater: Off Broadway". New York. April 13, 1992. p. 92."Gunmetal Blues". AboutTheArtists.com. Retrieved August 13, 2019. and a 2014 production at Queen's Theatre, Hornchurch in London.Wilkin, Andy. "Gunmetal Blues – Queen’s Theatre, Hornchurch". MusicalTheatreReview.com. September 4, 2014."Gunmetal Blues". Loitering In the Theatre. September 19, 2014.Wilkin, Andrew. "Review of Gunmetal Blues at The Queen's Theatre". Hornchurch Life. September 3, 2014.
Houston Grand Opera's Houston Opera Studio commissioned Bohmler's second opera, an "outreach" opera for youthful singers.LaFave, Kenneth. "Composer's marriage unconventional: Rap, opera". Arizona Republic. December 4, 1998. p. D5.Miller, Rhea Ann. "OperaTunity: Opera Education for the Community". Arizona State University. May 2016. pp. 44–47."Craig Bohmler | Composer". RidersOpera.com. Retrieved August 12, 2019. The result was The Achilles Heel, a one-act opera with a libretto by Mary Carol Warwick, in which three high-school students – a blind boy, a black boy, and a beautiful girl – learn lessons about tolerance and perceived limitations.Griffel, Margaret Ross. Operas in English: A Dictionary. Scarecrow Press, 2012. p. 3.Wlaschin, Ken. Encyclopedia of American Opera. McFarland & Company, 2006. p. 6. The score combines elements of classical, musical-theater, jazz, and rap music.Newsletter, Volume 17; Volume 19. National Opera Association, 1994. p. 21.Christian, Carol. "Composer has impressive list of credits". Galveston Daily News. September 30, 1996. p. 11-A. The work was premiered by Houston Opera Studio in February 1993 at the Heinen Theater of the Houston Community College."The Achilles Heel". Opening Night! Opera & Oratorio Premieres. Stanford University. Retrieved August 12, 2019. It won first prize in the National Opera Association's biennial Chamber Opera Competition in 1995.McVicker, Mary F. Women Opera Composers: Biographies from the 1500s to the 21st Century. McFarland, 2016. p. 203.MacClelland, Scott. "The Singing 'Nutcracker'". Metro Silicon Valley. November 11–17, 1999."Craig Bohmler". Santa Barbara Music Publishing. Retrieved August 12, 2019.
Bohmler's next production was a musical, Enter the Guardsman, another collaboration with lyricist Marion Adler and book writer Scott Wentworth. It is based on Ferenc Molnár's 1910 Hungarian farce The Guardsman, about a man who disguises himself as a dashing guardsman to seduce his own wife, an English-language production of which Carlisle Floyd had had a supporting role in Florida in 1949.Holliday, Thomas. Falling Up: The Days and Nights of Carlisle Floyd, The Authorized Biography. Syracuse University Press, 2013. p. 100. Prior to being fully produced, Enter the Guardsman won the first-ever international Musical of the Year competition in Aarhus, Denmark in 1996.Rampton, James. "Let's do the show in Aarhus". The Independent. September 26, 1996."Musical of the Year: 1996 > Concert Cast". CastAlbums.org. September 21, 1996.Sommer, Elyse. "Enter the Guardsman: A Musical Romance". CurtainUp.com. May 2000. It then premiered in 1997 at the West End's Donmar Warehouse in London, in a sponsorship between the Donmar and the Really Useful Group,Viagas, Robert. "Donmar Joins Webber in Producing Enter the Guardsman". Playbill. December 17, 1996.Wolf, Matt. Sam Mendes at the Donmar: Stepping Into Freedom. Hal Leonard Corporation, 2003. pp. 54–55. and in 1998 was nominated for the Olivier Award for Best New Musical."Olivier Winners 1998". Olivier Awards. Retrieved August 12, 2019. Subsequent productions included a limited engagement Off-Broadway at the Vineyard/Dimson Theater, May–June 2000.Willis, John; Lynch, Tom; Hodges, Ben. Theatre World 1999-2000. Hal Leonard Corporation, 2003. p. 167.Dietz, Dan. The Complete Book of 1920s Broadway Musicals. Rowman & Littlefield, 2019. p. 84.
Opera San Jose commissioned Bohmler's next opera, The Tale of the Nutcracker, an operatic re-working of E. T. A. Hoffmann's "The Nutcracker and the Mouse King", with a libretto by Daniel Helfgot.Vaughn, Michael J. "Dark Dreams". Metro Silicon Valley. November 18–24, 1999. The company premiered it in November–December 1999 at the Montgomery Theater in San Jose.Kosman, Joshua. "Psychobabble Mars 'Nutcracker' Opera / But music soars in San Jose world premiere". San Francisco Chronicle. November 15, 1999."Tale of the Nutcracker". Opening Night! Opera & Oratorio Premieres. Stanford University. Retrieved August 12, 2019.
2000 to present Bohmler's musical Mountain Days, about the life of naturalist John Muir, was commissioned by the Concord Pavilion and Willows Theatre in Concord, California, with book and lyrics by Mary Bracken Phillips.Kilduff, Paul. "One mountain of a musical opens in Martinez / John Muir tale plays in new amphitheater". San Francisco Chronicle. July 13, 2001."John Muir Musical Scheduled For An Extended Run!!". The John Muir Newsletter, Spring 2002. Vol. 12, No. 2. p. 2. It premiered in October 2000 at the outdoor 15,000-seat Concord Pavilion, with a cast of 80 performers, 28 symphony musicians, and a 50-person chorus."Mountain Days: The John Muir Musical". Sierra Club. November 28, 2018Connema, Richard. "John Muir is alive and well in Mountain Days: the John Muir Musical". TalkinBroadway.com. Retrieved August 12, 2019. A cast recording was also produced. Afterwards, the Willows Theatre Company constructed an outdoor waterfront amphitheater in Muir's adult hometown Martinez, California to house the musical as an annual event.
For Shakespeare Santa Cruz's annual Winter Holiday season, Bohmler composed the music for playwright and lyricist Kate Hawley's Gretel and Hansel, a musical comedy written in the style of a British pantomime."A twist on a classic tale". Los Altos Town Crier. July 10, 2013.Palopoli, Steve. "Pleased to Eat You". Metro Silicon Valley. November 13–20, 2002."Craig Bohmler". New Music USA. Retrieved August 12, 2019. The music for the lively piece features styles ranging from ragtime to hip-hop, musical-theatre, and Kurt Weill."Gretel and Hansel". Herberger Theater Center. Retrieved August 12, 2019."Goings On". Mountain View Voice. July 12, 2013. Vol. 21, No. 24. p. 20. It premiered in November–December 2001, at the University of California, Santa Cruz.Guide to the Shakespeare Santa Cruz Records UA.041. Online Archive of California. Retrieved August 12, 2019.Pratt, Rob. "Into the Woods". Metro Silicon Valley. November 21–28, 2001."The Calendar: Santa Cruz Style". Santa Cruz Sentinel. November 15, 2001. p. B-4.
The Quiltmaker's Gift is a family holiday musical commissioned by the Phoenix Theatre in Arizona, based on the children's book of the same title by Jeff Brumbeau, which tells the story of a greedy king and a quiltmaker who teaches him the joy of generosity."The Quiltmaker's Gift & Holiday Cabarets - Theater Works - December 3 - December 18, 2016". PHX Stages. July 6, 2016."Craig Bohmler". Opera America. Retrieved August 12, 2019. Bohmler composed the music, lyrics are by Steven Mark Kohn, and the adapted stage book is by Alan J. Prewitt."The Quiltmaker's Gift". Dramatic Publishing. Retrieved August 13, 2019. The Phoenix Theatre premiered the piece in November 2002.Lengel, Kerry. "Review: Greedy king gives gift of laughter in 'Quiltmaker'". Arizona Republic. December 9, 2014Benbrook, Gil. "The Quiltmaker's Gift". TalkinBroadway.com. 2015.Lawson, Kyle. "'The Quiltmaker' gets musical gift". Arizona Republic. November 24, 2002. p. E4. Bohmler and Kohn wrote another children's musical for Phoenix Theatre, Unstoppable Me!, based on a 2006 book of the same title by Wayne Dyer, adapted for the stage by Michael Barnard and Vincent VanVleet; the piece premiered in 2011.Hoffman, Michelle. "Unstoppable Me! is pure unstoppable fun". Arizona Republic. February 4, 2011. p. Z-9.Lengel, Kerry. "5/8-12: Riders of the Purple Sage with Arizona Opera". Arizona Republic. May 5, 2013.