LESLIE STIFELMAN
Biography

Peabody-Award winning Executive Producer Leslie Stifelman enjoys a varied musical career as a conductor and pianist in addition to her work as a producer and educator. Ms. Stifelman is currently the Music Director for the Tony- and Grammy-award winning Broadway hit musical Chicago.  As the show’s conductor, she has been responsible for performances of the longest-running revival in the history of Broadway.  This position has given her the opportunity to work with many stars of the show, including Melanie Griffith, Brooke Shields, Patti Labelle, Usher, Huey Lewis, Patrick Swayze, George Hamilton, John O’Hurley and Wayne Brady. She is also the Artistic Editor of the score from Chicago published by the Hal Leonard Corporation.

The world of musical theater has provided many opportunities for Ms. Stifelman. Broadway credits in addition to Chicagoinclude the recent Broadway revival of Wonderful Town and music for Arthur Miller’s The Ride Down Mt. Morgan starring Patrick Stewart. In 2003 Ms. Stifelman and her Tony-award winning colleagues Bebe Neuwirth, Ann Reinking, and Roger Rees established the Green Moon Gang, a theatrical production company whose first collaboration was the off-Broadway show Here Lies Jenny, a revue of songs by Kurt Weill. The current show, an orchestral evening of songs by Kurt Weill and Kander and Ebb, is on a national tour with Ms. Stifelman and Ms. Neuwirth.

In Ms. Stifelman’s role as conductor she has led the Philadelphia Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, Milwaukee Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony and many others. She has also performed with some of the world’s leading musicians, including conductor Marin Alsop, soprano Dawn Upshaw, and violinists Mark O’Connor and Nadja Salerno-Sonnenberg. Ms. Stifelman was also featured with Ms. Salerno-Sonnenberg in Speaking In Strings, the Academy Award-nominated HBO documentary that profiled the violinist’s life.

Performances by Ms. Stifelman are widely available on recording. Her discography includes a variety of classical, contemporary and jazz repertoire on BMG, RCA Victor, Angel, Nonesuch, DRG, Koch International, Albany and MusicMasters. National media recognition includes appearances on The Today Show, Good Morning America, Charlie Rose, The Regis & Kelly Show and The Tony Awards in 1996 and 2005, as well as feature stories in both the New York Times and Wall Street Journal in 2006. 

A fervent advocate for arts education for children, Ms. Stifelman is the President and Creative Director of Symfunny Toons™ Inc., a company dedicated to the development of television programs and interactive products for children to learn about music. Her company developed the Peabody Award-winning HBO documentary television series The Music in Me with Ms. Stifelman serving as Executive Producer. Ms. Stifelman also directed and designed education programs for the Concordia Orchestra earning the first Bernstein Education Through the Arts Foundation Award. She also acted as field consultant for Artsvision and the Annenberg Foundation’s Arts and Education Needs and Resources Assessment for the New York City Board of Education which led to the establishment of the Center for Arts and Education.

Among her charitable work, Ms. Stifelman is proud to have spearheaded a campaign to donate a Steinway piano, signed by the Chicago cast, composers and creative team, to Target House at St. Jude’s Hospital, a long-term care residence for children with cancer. Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, an organization to which Ms. Stifelman frequently donates her time and talents, sold it at auction to the Target Corporation. Ms. Stifelman received her Bachelor of Music from the New England Conservatory and went on to earn her Master of Music from the Mannes College of Music.  She is a Steinway artist.