Experience, Insight, and a Lifelong Commitment to Music

He was recently commissioned to compose the music for the folk-opera Jubilee, based on Margaret Walker’s esteemed novel. The commission is underwritten in part by a generous grant from Yale University through the Yale Alliance for Scholarship, Collaboration, Engagement, Networking and Development (ASCEND) Initiative and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts. He is a Grammy nominated songwriter for his song Who Taught You That? on Vox Humana performed by Antoinette Montague fronting the Bobby Sanabria Multiverse Big Band. He was awarded the Creatives Rebuild New York grant 2022-23, He was awarded the 2016 Scholars on Site award from the Hall Center for the Humanities at the University of Kansas for his theatrical work Jubilee. He is also the recipient of the prestigious Simons Public Humanities Fellowship at the Hall Center for the Humanities at the University of Kansas for the 2011-2012 academic year. He is the recipient of the 2009 BMI Foundation Jerry Harrington Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement in Musical Theatre. His song cycle, For My People won the 2009 CAP Grant sponsored by the American Music Center. He is the winner of four Southern Regional Emmy Awards: 1996 - for the original score to the 90 minute film-documentary titled Richard Wright - Black Boy PPS/BBC.

He won the 1998, 1999 and 2002 Southern Regional Emmy Awards in the category of "Outstanding Collaborative Achievement for Composer" for his work on Ticktock Minutes (Mississippi ETV, PBS). Ticktock Minutes is the winner of the 1999 National Emmy Award for Best Public Service Announcement. He has been nominated for a 1998 and 2010 Jerry Boch Award for his theater composition. He is the winner of the USA Songwriting Competition 2005 in the Jazz category and top two in the overall category for his composition DATA. He is the winner of gold records for songs recorded by Polydor recording artist Millie Jackson, and composed and produced the dance hit Watch The Closing Doors for the RCA group IRT. He has had songs recorded by Candy Staton, Sarah Dash (formerly of LaBelle), the rap group Black Sheep, Memphis Bleak, and Sesame Street. His documentary film scores include National Emmy winner Free To Dance (PBS Great Performances) and National Emmy winner Beyond Tara – The Extraordinary Life Of Hattie McDaniel (American Movie Classics) and Richard Wright – Black Boy (PBS/BBC production). His music can be heard at the Burial Ground Museum in lower Manhattan and at the Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro, NC.

He is the composer of For My People, a song cycle featuring the poetry of American author, Margaret Walker performed in 2024 by the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra with a combined chorale of 120 voices. For My People was featured at the Furious Flower Poetry Festival at James Madison University and the Hall Center for the Humanities at the University of Kansas, 2010-11.

For My People, the renowned poem by Margaret Walker was premiered on April 2, 2011 at the Forbes Center for the Arts, James Madison University, VA. His compositions, Facing It and Dear John, Dear Coltrane, based on the poetry of Yusef Komunyakaa and Michael Harper premiered at the 2014 Furious Flower Poetry Conference featuring the combined James Madison University and Morgan State Chorales. The world premiere of his composition Fanfare For Jerusalem took place at the Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center March 2017, Rose Hall, Jazz At Lincoln Center, May 2017 and in Jerusalem, Israel, June 2017 featuring the 400 voice Hazamir Chorale. His concert work Brockton had its world premiere April 2018, performed by the Brockton High School Advanced Concert Band.is a multi-award-winning composer, pianist, record producer, author, music educator and the president of Jazzheads, an independent music label.

His musical theater works include Move!, a dance musical commissioned by the Royal Theatre Carre', Amsterdam (premiered April, 1992); I Don't Do Club Dates, staged reading at the Victory Theater September, 1991 by the National Musical Theater Network and at the John Harms Center for the Arts, Englewood, NJ, January 1994; and Capture The Moon, based on the Eastern European folklore stories of the Wise Men of Chelm. In 1989, I Don't Do Club Dates earned Randy a BMI Foundation grant for artistic promise in theater composition; Falling Apart, a chamber musical utilizing elements of both musical theater and the jazz concert; Bucky And His Friends, a full-length contemporary vaudeville show for stage, video and CD; Flambe’ Dreams, (an original musical about a man who dreams of becoming a great maitre'd. Flambe’ Dreams has been performed in readings and workshops from 2006-present at: 2012 New York Musical Theatre Festival (NYMF), The BMI Musical Theatre Workshop, BMI Showcase, Musical Mondays at the Jerry Orbach Theatre, TRU readings , Groundup Productions, and The York Theatre. Ever Happily After – 2013 New York Musical Theatre (NYMF). Music for Fancy Nancy ‘Splendiferous’ Christmas at the Vital Musical Theatre, NYC 2014 – 2016, Music for Twinkle Tames A Dragon at the Vital Musical Theatre, NYC 2016 – 2017.

His musical, Black Swan Blues, in collaboration with Joan Ross Sorkin, book writer and lyricist, inspired by the ballet “Swan Lake,”. Black Swan Blues explores white privilege and racism in America in the South in the early 1960’s. The musical’s production history includes an Evening of Song – The Music of Black Swan Blues” (The Lambs, NYC, 2025) and the York Theatre Company's Developmental Reading Series, Staged Reading (Pearl Studios, NYC, 2022).

Black Swan Blues - The Concept Album is available worldwide on all streaming channels.

In development is SPEAK, a musical about communicating with the other side, and the folk-opera, Jubilee, based on the award-winning best seller by author, Margaret Walker, and a long-awaited recording of his jazz songbook featuring an ‘A’ list of jazz luminaries.

His published works include: You Can Write A Song songwriting course on MusicFirst,(2025), You Can Write A Song (In Tune Monthly) September 2025, Songwriting Resolutions (In Tune Monthly), January 2018, Quickstart Guide To Songwriting (AuthorHouse Publishing), September 2017, The Star Spangled Banner Is Not A Song, or Is It?(American Songwriter Magazine), April 2013. He developed the

educational cartoon series, Can You Ear It? to assist middle and high school teachers with instruction in music fundamentals. Published monthly in Music Alive magazine

(Cherry Lane Publications, 11/1998-5/2001). His presentations on music and the business of music are regular features at: JEN (Jazz Educational Network), APME (Association for Popular Music Educators) and ISIM (The International Society for Improvising Musicians).

As a pianist Randy has recorded the following: Randy Klein’s Jazzheads (Jazzheads), Underground Romantic (Jazzheads), Just My Imagination (Slider Music) and Love Notes From The Bass (Jazzheads), Broadway Remembers (Main Street Productions), How Sweet It Is, Rock-A-Bye Baby, Baby’s First Birthday, Animal Songs (Rock Candy Music), Invitation In (Jazzheads), Piano Christmas (Jazzheads) and The Flowing (Jazzheads), Kleinway@Steinway (Jazzheads).

Other projects in development are: Kenny Keys – Keyboard Recordings – Single releases ongoing, and Ambient Spaces, a live multimedia event featuring the marriage of sound, light and improvisation - a canvas of sound and image within a constantly evolving physical environment influenced by performers and audience.

Randy Klein’s jazz composition project, Two Duos received rave reviews for the releases of the CD Sunday Morning, May 2010, featuring trombonist Chris Washburne and Russian saxophonist Oleg Kireyev performing with Randy Klein on piano. The duos are sensitive duets designed to feature each of these esteemed soloists. Composed specifically for each performer, the project continues to expand to include other great improvising soloists. The second Two Duos release titled, What’s Next?, October 2012, features Grammy winning bassist, Boris Kozlov and rock/jazz guitarist, Alex Skolnick, also with excellent reviews. He has performed at venues such as Birdland, Klavierhaus, Trumpets, and the historic Union of Composers Club (Moscow). Randy’s music has also been featured at many Jazz and music educational conventions in Chicago, New Orleans, New York and at the Berklee Performance Center.

He is the president of Jazzheads, an independent music label. The label has expanded to releasing multi-genre recordings, adding to the jazz genre releases that have been the mainstay in the Jazzheads catalog.

He is a long-time member of the advanced BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop, The Dramatists Guild, NARAS, APME (Association for Popular Music Educators), an alumnus of the Berklee College of Music in Boston. He studies piano with William Daghlian. Former teachers: Chuck Isreal, Lennie Tristano and Charlie Banacos. He is a music educator conducting clinics on songwriting, music and the business of music. He has a long list of private students. He is a songwriting coach at SongU.com. Randy Klein is an Exclusive Steinway Artist.