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Ray Leslee is an award winning composer and music director. His compositions for the theatre include AVENUE X, the a cappella musical, (Playwrights Horizons) about racial tensions in New York City circa 1963. “Rediscovering what musicals are all about!” –The NY Times. After an extended run Off-Broadway, AVENUE X went on to some 50 productions around the world winning Best Musical in Dallas, Austin, Seattle, San Diego, Los Angeles (Ovation Awards) and Philadelphia’s Barrymore Award for Best Musical 1997. He produced the cast album for RCA Victor/BMG Classics. His cabaret musical STANDUP SHAKESPEARE was directed by Mike Nichols for Off-Broadway and revived in 2005 starring Alfred Molina, F. Murray Abraham and Alice Ripley. A GOOD MAN, a blues musical about a Mississippi tenant farmer, premiered in 2006 at the Vienna Chamber Opera in Austria. ROMEO & JULIET FOR ORCHESTRA & ACTORS was performed by the Buffalo Philharmonic and the New Haven Symphony orchestras. As an 18-year-old rock & roll pianist, he toured with such legendary performers as Jay and The Americans, The Platters, Leslie Gore, The Shirelles, The Drifters, The Capris, and Eddie Floyd. Among many awards and commissions Ray received The Gilman & Gonzalez-Falla Musical Theatre Award in 1997 and was honored at Lincoln Center for his contribution to the American theatre.