About

Maury Yeston

Composer, lyricist, author and teacher.

Maury moves easily between the worlds of theater, film, and academia – writing concert music, Broadway shows, scholarly works and holding teaching posts as a musicologist and music theorist.

Full Bio

Theater & Film

In addition to winning his second Tony Award for Best Score for Broadway’s “Titanic” (which won five Tonys including Best Musical), Yeston won a Tony Award and two Drama Desk Awards for his music and lyrics to Broadway’s “Nine” (based on Fellini’s “8 ½”). For all of the above he is a 3-time Grammy nominee.

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Concert

Yeston’s music and lyrics cover a wide variety of styles, from his Cello Concerto (premiered by Yo-Yo Ma) to the concept album “Goya—A Life In Song,” (featuring Placido Domingo and Gloria Estefan). The song “Till I Loved You,” from the “Goya” album became a Top 40 hit for Barbra Streisand.

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Recordings & Incidental Music

Three times nominated for a Grammy Award, Yeston’s recordings include cast albums of Nine, Titanic, Phantom, Grand Hotel, Death Takes A Holiday, The Maury Yeston Songbook, Maury Sings Yeston, December Songs (seven times in English and once each in French, German, and Polish), Goya - A Life In Song featuring Placido Domingo, Gloria Estefan, Dionne Warwick and Richie Havens (cont.),and December Songs for Voice and Orchestra with Victoria Clarke And a 37-piece Ensemble.

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New Works

PS Classics has recorded the December Songs for Voice and Orchestra - accompanied for the first time by a Full Orchestra of 37 – performed by the brilliant Victoria Clark, with new orchestrations by Larry Hochman, released in September of 2022. PS Classics has also released another new album - “Maury Sings Yeston, The Demos” (a compendium of 40 personal demos of many of his works). He is currently also writing a new musical in the grand tradition based on the story of the building of The Brooklyn Bridge, and an original musical based on the life of the Japanese Haiku poet Kobayashi Issa, scheduled for production in Tokyo in 2026.

A two-week Workshop of the new “CLUB MOSCOW - How To Lose A Democracy” with Thom Southerland and Danielle Tarento was presented in London in July, 2022. “CLUB MOSCOW”, a new sung-through musical, takes a ride through the first decade of Post-Soviet Union Russia during the wild-west chaotic 1990’s – a kleptocracy of oligarchs, mafiosi, and corruption. Through the eyes of a street musician is revealed a roller coaster of a society careening off the rails, drunk on democracy and greed, and ultimately to be shut down by Putin to be transformed into the unfree dictatorship that it has come to be.

A Revue showcasing his work, conceived and directed by Gerard Alessandrini - “Anything Can Happen In The Theater - The Musical World of Maury Yeston” opened to great acclaim at the York Theater in New York in the Spring of 2020. The European premiere of the Small Ensemble “Titanic”, directed by Thom Sullivan and produced by Danielle Tarento, opened to rave reviews at the Southwark Playhouse in London, winning Broadwayworld UK’s Award for Best Regional Production of a Musical in the UK, Whatsonstage Best Regional Production of a Musical, and swept the Offie Awards in four categories including Best Musical Production. Southwark Playhouse matched this success in August 2015 with their well-received production of “Grand Hotel”, garnering Critic’s “top picks” from numerous UK publications.

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Academia & Honors

Recently inducted into the Theater Hall of Fame, Yeston holds a PhD. from Yale University and BA and MA degrees from both Yale and Clare College, Cambridge Universities. He was Associate Professor and Director of Undergraduate Studies in Music at Yale for eight years, twice cited by the undergraduates as being among Yale’s top ten professors. (click to continue)

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Awards

• Tony Award for Best Original Score (1982) (Nine)

• Tony Award for Best Musical (1982) (Nine)

• Tony Award for Best Musical Revival (2003) (Nine)

• Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Music (1982,Nine)
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The Gem of the Ocean...

Astonishingly, Titanic manages to be grave and entertaining, somber and joyful; little by little you realize that you are in the presence of a genuine addition to American musical theatre."