The man behind SEMO's stage music: Joshua Harvey

Instructor of musical theater Joshua Harvey is the man behind the music of Southeast Missouri State University's productions, such as "Mary Poppins," which was the River Campus' most attended musical to date.

His role as music director requires him to be a "jack-of-all-trades, master of none," but he is well-studied and -traveled, having earned experiences across the globe.

With "Mary Poppins," Harvey said "the performer's lines must also fit over specific measures, and measures have to go into the next song in the right way and at the right time."

In charge of teaching all the music for the show required both a big-picture view as well as tending the smallest details. He had to make sure that music was being sung accurately, even to the level of teaching performers to sing with the same vowel shape.

"If the MD doesn't do their job, the show will stop, because underscoring isn't happening," Harvey said. "You're coordinating what's happening on stage with the orchestra and all the music. The only other person doing that amount of work or more is the stage manager. 'Mary Poppins' is a really well-written show that includes musical clues you're trying to unravel."

According to Harvey, there is a lot of coordination with the choreographer or director "so the story makes cohesive sense." If the show sounds good, or sounds bad, "that's on the music director, a lot of the time."

If an actor drops a cue or misses a line in a production, Harvey said the music director must also figure out how to fix it.

"And especially since 'Mary Poppins' is so cinematic, it's like underscoring a movie; it has to make sense. Just like watching 'Star Wars,'" Harvey said. "The music in the background has to make sense with what's happening on-screen. It's got to make you feel something."

Harvey said most people learn whatever they're supposed to do on the job, or they become conductors and learn the conducting part of it, but he said it's not the same as talking to actors about what they're supposed to be doing.

"It's also weird, like in academia, being an MD, it's not enough that we have to be able to sight read an accompaniment and play piano fast enough. You have to keep up with your conducting as much as you can, Harvey said. "You're supposed to be a good arranger. So like 'On the Town,' I took the orchestra of 33 people and made it 13. So, I'm literally rewriting the orchestration. There are all these hats."

Harvey grew up in the Lexington, Virginia, and said church and theater were always part of his musical background.

"The first musical I ever played was in high school. I was a freshman. It was the 'Wizard of Oz,'" Harvey said. "I played my first church service at 14. So yeah, it's been a long time, and I'm turning 40 this year."

Harvey received his master's degree at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and said that in his 20s one of his jobs was being the choir accompanist for a university touring all over the world.

"What's really cool is, Bart Williams, an acting faculty here, his office is literally right across the hall [from my office] also went there, which is really random," Harvey said. "So there are two American professors at the university that went to the same random Scottish Conservatory, essentially."

Harvey said he's been to 19 countries, including Ireland, France and Scotland and has been involved in everything from church and choir concerts in Scandinavia to playing mass in Haiti with Haitian musicians.

Harvey began teaching theory and musical theory history classes at Southeast in the fall of 2015, which he said are all "content-loaded" courses.

Harvey's next project is the musical "Little Shop."

"I will start prepping that pretty soon, but that's in June. I could start [prepping] at the beginning of May," Harvey said. "I've already done the show before, so I know where the problem spots are. But a show of Mary Poppins' size, I started [prepping] back in October or November."

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jhartwig@semissourian.com

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