Charles Louis "Charlie" Greenberg is an American composer and arranger of instrumental and vocal arrangements for classical, jazz, contemporary and musical theater productions. His career spans more than 40 years. His compositions have been performed at Off-Broadway venues including the Vineyard Theater, Circle Repertory,

Symphony Space Symphony Space, founded by Isaiah Sheffer and Allan Miller, is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre (also called Pe ...

, Lincoln Center Summer Festival, Eugene O’Neil Theater Foundation, Westbeth Theater, Stanford Lively Arts, Tribeca Performing Arts, Abrons Performing Arts Center, 42nd Street's Clurman Theater and Mint Theater.

Career

In 1996, Greenberg began a long-time collaboration with librettist and lyricist, Barbara Zinn Krieger. Together, they have staged numerous productions for the New York City Children's Theater, including ''Little Kit'' (1997 & 1999) ''Butterfly'' (2008 & 2012), ''Jose Limon: The Making of an Artist'' (2009), '' Sky Boys'' (2011) and ''Young Charles Dickens'', a 2016 nominee for Best Family Show by the Off-Broadway Alliance. Greenberg has also written incidental music for ''The Emperor's New Clothes and other Magical Stories'', which opened at the Clurman Theater on November 24, 2018. Greenberg wrote the incidental music for Circle Repertory's premiere of

A.R. Gurney Albert Ramsdell Gurney Jr. (November 1, 1930 – June 13, 2017) (sometimes credited as Pete Gurney) was an American playwright, novelist and academic. He is known for works including ''The Dining Room'' (1982), ''Sweet Sue (play), Sweet Sue'' (1 ...

's ''Who Killed Richard Corey'' (1976) and performed in the production. He also collaborated with

Camille Saviola Camille Saviola (July 16, 1950 – October 28, 2021) was an American actress and singer. She appeared in numerous films, television series, plays and musicals. Early life Saviola was born in The Bronx, New York City, New York (state), New Yor ...

on the 1993 theater lab production of ''The Chocolate Ambassador'' at the Vineyard Theater, and was the composer and lyricist for the 1987 staged reading of ''A Month in the Country'', directed by

Steve Gomer ''yes'Steve is a masculine given name, usually a short form (hypocorism) of Steven or Stephen Notable people with the name include: steve jops * Steve Abbott (disambiguation), several people * Steve Adams (disambiguation), several people * Steve ...

, also at the Vineyard Theater. In addition to productions for the New York City Children's Theater, Greenberg also worked with Krieger on ''Dickens and Nelly'' (2015), the story of an illicit love affair between British novelist

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English writer and social critic. He created some of the world's best-known fictional characters and is regarded by many as the greatest novelist of the Victorian e ...

and actress Ellen "Nelly" Ternan. It was performed as a staged reading at William Patterson University's Playwright Festival. In the 1980s, Greenberg formed the Hunterdon Hills Playhouse Early Jazz Orchestra, a band which recreated early jazz recordings. The group played Greenberg's transcriptions of music by Jelly Roll Morton's Red Hot Peppers, King Oliver's Original Creole Jazz Band, the

Original Memphis Five The Original Memphis Five was an early jazz quintet founded in 1917 by trumpeter Phil Napoleon and pianist Frank Signorelli. Jimmy Lytell was a member from 1922 to 1925. The group made many recordings between 1921 and 1931, sometimes under diffe ...

and the

Original Dixieland Jazz Band The Original Dixieland Jass Band (ODJB) was a Dixieland jazz band that made the first jazz recordings in early 1917. Their "Livery Stable Blues" became the first jazz record ever issued. The group composed and recorded many jazz standards, the m ...

. The HHP Early Jazz Orchestra was promoted at the New Jersey Jazz Festival and on

Joe Franklin Joe Franklin (March 9, 1926 – January 24, 2015), born Joseph Fortgang, was an American radio and television host personality, author and actor from New York City. Franklin is noted for having the first talk show and inventing the format. His te ...

's radio and television shows.

Publications

Greenberg's "Scenes without Words" for Piano Trio and "Social Distinctions" for Brass Quintet are published through Art of Sound Music. The 14-track ''Songs of Male Middle Age-Crazy'' was released in May 2019 through CDBaby. The CD features original songs, lyrics and instrumentals. It includes performances by pianist Warren Helms, along with 13 singers and instrumentalists.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Greenberg, Charles American male jazz composers American jazz composers American jazz music arrangers American musical theatre composers American lyricists Living people Year of birth missing (living people)