Stephen Purdy (born 1970 in Hattiesburg, Mississippi) is an American conductor/pianist and vocal coach for broadway musicals and broadway actors. Before joining Broadway, Purdy worked as a Wall street broker.
Purdy studied vocal performance and piano at the University of Mississippi and at Juilliard and Vocal Pedagogy at Westminster College. Purdy spent many years in Europe conducting and playing tours of the musical productions of Grease, A Chorus Line, 42nd Street, and with Grease in Paris, France.
His work on Broadway includes Disney's Tarzan, Glory Days, Peter Pan (starring Cathy Rigby), the original Fantasticks and Frankenstein with Hunter Foster and has also toured the United States with the Broadway Musicals The Full Monty, Spelling Bee, and Peter Pan.
As a vocal coach he has trained and works regularly with many of the Broadway elite including Tony and Oscar award winners, maintains a private studio for voice coaching in Manhattan, and makes regular contributions to master classes at Universities and performing arts groups across the US and internationally notably in The Netherlands, Spain and Shanghai, China.
His regional theatre credits include North Shore Music Theatre, Ogunquit, Helen Hayes, KC Starlight, The Joseph Papp Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons and others.
He is the author of a book entitled "Does this song make me look fat?" a guide to song preparation and presentation which is scheduled for release (according to his website) in late 2011.
Recently Purdy has been connected to film studios in California training actors in vocal production and song interpretation for film and has been coaching major "stars" of Japanese theatre and film in the craft ahead of stage performances.
Stephen Purdy lives in New York City.
Famous quotes containing the words stephen and/or purdy:
“Comes from a fine family. So she tells me. Brother’s a priest, all that. But, you know, death, disaster, unfortunate investments. One day she’s a little princess, up on the hill. Next, she’s down there, working the bars for the best she can.”
—Peter Prince, British screenwriter, and Stephen Frears. Harry (Bill Hunter)
“Someone hangs in the sky
over there from a piece of rope,
hammering and fitting God’s belly-scratcher,
working his way up along the spire
until there’s nothing left to nail on—”
—Alfred Wellington Purdy (b. 1919)