THEATRICAL WORK

Lexi Vollero is currently co-writing, -arranging, and -orchestrating “A Great Day in Harlem”: an original musical with Dionne Hendricks (see below for more details).

She is passionate about collaboration in developing new musical theatre that shares fresh, impactful narratives and incorporates genres of music not conventionally heard in the art form. In broadening the styles of music welcomed in the space, she hopes it will also welcome broader audiences and break down barriers that limit who gets a seat in the theater.

She currently works on Broadway shows (“Smash”, “Some Like It Hot” (First National Tour), “How To Dance In Ohio”, “Harmony”) and Off-Broadway shows (“The Jonathan Larson Project”, “My Son’s A Queer (But What Can You Do?)”, “The Lonely Few”, “Galileo”, “Long Way Down”, etc.) as an Assistant Playback Engineer with PatchMaster Productions, Music Assistant, and/or Composer’s Assistant.

She also enjoys work in the musical theatre industry as an copyist, arranger, orchestrator, vocal designer, and vocal coach. She is passionate about new work on readings and rehearsal processes for various musical theater productions in-development. Beyond Broadway, she has worked with MCC Theater, The Cincinnati Playhouse, The Orpheum, The Apollo Theater, KGM Theatrical, 5th Avenue Theatre, and assisted composers with work at 92NY, 54 Below, Lincoln Center’s NYPL for Performing Arts, and more (see my resumes for more details).

Lexi holds a Master's from BerkleeNYC (housed in Power Station Studios) in Creative Media and Technology (‘22) and was awarded a Post Master’s Fellowship of Admissions and Communications (‘23) the following year. She spent her fellowship cultivating her sound through studying music tech, songwriting, production, mixing, and technology, and her one-year Master’s concentrating on Writing and Design for Musical Theatre – including composition, orchestration, lyric-writing, bookwriting, demo-making, arranging, engineering, and more.

Prior to Berklee, she graduated from Northwestern University in June 2020 with a double-major in Journalism and Music and a minor in Spanish. Her musical studies were concentrated in a combination of music theater development and jazz studies. There, she was a writer and orchestrator for the famed Waa-Mu Show: an original music fully written and produced by students each school year. She was also the co-music director, arranger, vocalist, and rehearsal pianist for Tempo Tantrum a cappella.

August 12, 1958: a sizzling summer morning in central Harlem saw 57 of the world’s greatest jazz musicians gather on the stoop of a brownstone at 17 E. 126th St. between Fifth and Madison Avenue to pose for the feature photo in Esquire Magazine’s “Jazz Issue”. This is the story of how this moment, and its subsequent iconic portrait, came together.

Explored through the eyes of swing pianist, composer, and arranger Mary Lou Williams, and the now-iconic innovating photographer Art Kane, our piece of historical-fiction centers the vibrant Harlem jazz community and both the external pressures and internal conflict it faced in the Civil Rights era.

Through this fictionalized examination of history, we highlight that everyone deserves to be seen as they hope to be seen and carries a unique story that deserves to be shared – it is these stories that make our communities and the world a better, brighter place.

"A Great Day in Harlem" @ 54 Below

 Artistic Statement

The vibrant stories I tell are authentic and soulful with room for improvisation, yet life-bringing and joy-filled explorations of intrinsically-human experiences. Both timely and timeless, I work with great care and attention to detail in all aspects to create a refreshing, accessible work. As a multi-passionate creator, I value the process as much (if not more) than the product for the discoveries we make and bonds we form along the way, and find reward in the way my work touches the lives of others. After all, why do we create if not for our communities?

Accessibility is the cornerstone of my art. I do not value exclusionary practices or complexity for complexity's sake, but rather, well-crafted work that is thorough and thoughtful, but feels seamless and simple to audiences. I strive for excellence and to put the music that lives in my mind and heart on display, but not at the cost of others. I hope my work refreshes, reinvigorates, illuminates, and sparks action and conversation going forward.  

I aim for audience members to encounter reinvigorated hope, deep healing, child-like whimsy, and a glimpse at who God is for themselves through my writing. Non-traditional storytelling in theatre deeply interests me, specifically in the way of bringing untold stories and genres not conventionally heard in musicals into theatrical spaces  as a way of inviting new voices and viewers in. I seek to expand the idea of what theatre can be, who is interested in it, and who is invited to participate in it through this explorative integration. Visibility, community, and authenticity are at the core of my work. 

Both the privilege and responsibility of my platform as a creative are not lost on me. Although I treasure the ephemeral, immersive process of staging theatre, neither my work nor my audience is limited to this context. I believe exploring alternate forms of storytelling and music sharing across mediums is the best way to stretch myself as a writer, expand my reach, and engage with people by meeting them in their preferred mode – whether it’s through my artist project, editorial work, stand-alone songs, and more. My vision necessitates me having a hand in creating across various corners of the industry through a multitude of formats and forums.

My love of learning drives my process. Whether leading or serving on a project, I hope to be a part of teams developing representative new work that is unafraid to ask difficult questions, push boundaries, craft genre-bending music, and share stories the world needs with excellence, open minds, and open hearts.