The Making of:
The Craig Schulman on Broadway
CD

This recording is a number of things. It includes songs from some of the many shows and roles that I have performed; it reflects my first solo symphony concert program, and it is a representation of who I am as an artist.

Click on images below for enlargements

For a long time, people have asked me, "When are you going to record a CD?" "Oh, maybe someday" I would dreamily reply. Some of my colleagues have recorded wonderful CDs, albeit mostly with piano or small ensemble accompaniment. I've always felt that for my own CD, I wanted to record with a full orchestra. After all, I am a classically trained singer and I perform regularly with symphony orchestras. Naturally, I want my CD to be a reflection of who I am as an artist.

Unfortunately, the short answer to the former question was, "MONEY". A CD is a major financial undertaking at any level. Recording just a soloist with piano accompaniment can cost up to $10,000 or more, and recording with a full orchestra can range into five or even six figures. Over the years, several people had expressed interest in helping me reach that goal, but somehow the arrangements always seemed to fall through when we got to talking about signing contracts. It was frustrating, to say the least.

All that began to change in September of 1999. As I was leaving the Plymouth Theatre one

evening following a performance of Jekyll & Hyde, I was approached by two young gentlemen. They introduced themselves as Geoffrey and Jason Ahrens, and told me how much they had enjoyed my performance as the Phantom several years earlier in Cleveland. We chatted for a while, and it was nice to meet such dedicated fans.

Over a period of time, we met several times at the Stage Door. Eventually we decided to go have a bite to eat together. As they are avid theatregoers, we chatted over dinner about 'the business' in general, and about my career specifically. Geoff and Jason were interested in learning more about show biz, and expressed an interest in helping me further my career.

At a subsequent dinner, the inevitable CD question came up. "Because I don't have anywhere near the kind of money I need for this," I replied. "How much would you need," they asked? I named a figure, more or less off the top of my head. At that point in the conversation, Geoff and Jason offered to help me raise the money. "That would be great, " I said, but I must admit I was skeptical.

Well, doggone it if those two guys didn't come back to me a couple of weeks later, and presented me with a check for the amount I had named. I was ecstatic!

We began several months of wide-ranging discussions. We talked about what our respective roles would be. I developed a budget and thought about how and where the CD would be recorded. We discussed marketing strategies and how the investors' money would be returned. It was finally decided that I would have complete artistic and financial control (this is where Broadway Gems Records was born). As Executive Producers, Geoff and Jason would assist me in every aspect of the production, in addition to raising the bulk of the funds to create what we hoped would become a world-class recording.

Once we had our financial ducks in a row, the next decisions were to decide who was going to produce the actual CD, and where the best place to record it would be. I also had to find someone to be my conductor and music director.

I knew right from the beginning that I wanted Sue Anderson to conduct. Sue has a number of great Broadway credits including "Cats", "Jerry's Girls" and "Pirates Of Penzance", among others. Sue has often been my accompanist for rehearsals, and she has both conducted and accompanied me on the piano for a number of concerts and benefits. We have a great musical rapport, and a close friendship. I am so grateful that she accepted the challenge.

Of course, next came the question as to who would record the CD. Sue, Geoff, Jason and my good friend (and attorney) Alan Levine had a number of meetings with producers and studios around New York City. None of them seemed to be a good fit, until we met with Gregg Squires, of Gregory K. Squires Music Production.

Gregg was clearly the best choice, and we sensed it at our very first meeting. He has worked on hundreds of recordings in his career. He has much experience with orchestras, so he is used to working with large groups of musicians, and he came highly recommended by some of the artists he has worked with.

As Gregg came aboard the project, I was considering several possibilities for my orchestra. I looked at a very good regional orchestra and considered putting together an orchestra in New York City. I even investigated using a synthesized accompaniment augmented with live musicians.

If I truly wanted to create a world-class recording, Gregg recommended that we go to London and record with the Philharmonia Orchestra of London at Abbey Road Studios. I also realized that by going to London, I could hope to avoid alienating any of my Symphony presenters who might have felt left out had I had chosen an orchestra here in the U.S. (It was really nothing personal!)

The idea was a no-brainer, except for one thing. You guessed it - MONEY. It would take approximately 10 to 20 thousand dollars more than what we had already raised, and the budget was already showing signs of busting. At the suggestion of Buzz Ahrens (Geoff and Jason's father), I began writing letters to several corporations asking for help. I didn't expect to be successful, but what the heck, it was worth a shot.

Incredibly, though, I received two generous donations. One came through Pepé Jeans, the other, my friend Brian Fischer. I am eternally grateful to Mr. Ahrens for his guidance in this area, and to Brian and the people at Pepé Jeans.

Since we were only going to hire 43 musicians, some of the musical arrangements had to be reduced to make sure that all the instrumental parts were covered in each piece. Sue spent many long hours sifting through about a thousand pages of music, making sure that everything was covered. She also did a great job scheduling the musicians for the three recording sessions to make sure that we weren't paying for any musicians who weren't going to be needed.

For a number of reasons, I decided that I was not going to record the vocals with the orchestra, a decision that would later prove to be fortuitous. I only had enough money for three recording sessions with the orchestra and it was unlikely that we could get the entire program finished within the allotted time if we recorded the vocals at the same time.

Trying to keep all the bases covered, I considered what might happen if I became tired or ill during the recording sessions. After all, the studio time and orchestra were paid for in advance, and I didn't expect to get a refund if I had to cancel a session. Even if I did need another session, I had no extra time, as I had to return to the States immediately following the third session on Thursday to prepare for a concert in Louisiana the following Monday night.

So the decision was made to record the vocals at a studio back in the States, recording only the orchestra tracks at Abbey Road Studios. Therefore, we would need to create a "scratch track vocal." This was a track of me singing all the songs on the program, so that they could later be played over Sue's headphones during the recording sessions.

That way, if I was incapacitated in some way, we could still record the orchestra with my tempos and nuances.

It was mid-November, but Christmas had come early, as I now had the money to go ahead and begin contracting the orchestra and Abbey Road Studios. The three sessions were scheduled for January 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, 2001. It was incredibly exciting. This was also the time that Mr. Murphy began to get into the act.

It was agreed that I would hire Patrick Garvey Management to handle the contracting of the orchestra and the studio in London. Patrick began negotiating with the various principals, and came up with a package including the hiring of the musicians, studio rental, and related equipment for the recording sessions.

Monday, December 4: I went to the bank and sent a wire transfer for the amount specified.

Wednesday, December 13: I received an e-mail message from Patrick Garvey, inquiring as to when he could expect the money to arrive in his account. WHAT!?! I thought wire transfers are supposed to be instantaneous! I ran to the bank, and they promised to initiate "an investigation", which would take four or five business days. So far, so good.

Friday, December 15: The bank informed me that they had located money. It was sitting in an intermediary account at a bank in London; however, they didn't know why it hadn't gone into Patrick's account at his bank. They continued to investigate.

Monday, December 18: The money was still sitting in the intermediary account, but no one seemed to know why. Patrick informed me that the orchestra was going on "Christmas holiday" as of noon on Wednesday the 20th, and if they didn't have the money in their account by then, the musicians would not be available for the sessions at Abbey Road. OH MY GOD! I returned to my bank several times during the day, screaming louder and longer each time. Finally, I was told that the money had moved to Patrick's account.

Tuesday, December 19: First thing in the morning, I sent an e-mail to Patrick, explaining that the money should now be in his account. He called me to report that it wasn't. I went back to the bank for another frantic session with Customer Service. Finally, at around two in the afternoon, I received a call from Patrick on my cell phone (I was still at my bank), telling me that the money had arrived. WHEW! All will be well now, and Merry Christmas.

Wednesday, December 20: I received another call from Patrick at 6 a.m., inquiring the whereabouts of two musical arrangements that had been rented and shipped to the orchestra. I was reminded that the Philharmonia's office was closing at noon that day. Since London is five hours ahead of New York, by the time I was able to call the rental agency at 9 a.m. my time, the orchestra office in London would already be closed. Oh, well, had to do it anyway.

I tracked the music: New York to Philadelphia, to Memphis, to London, and back to Memphis. Oh, well, either the music would get there or it wouldn't. (It eventually got there!)

Friday, December 29th: Geoff and Jason left for London on Friday, the 29th. Sue Anderson and I were ready to leave on Saturday, December 30th, Gregg Squires Sunday the 31st.

However, Mr. Murphy showed his hand again: the biggest snowstorm in five years blew in to New York on Friday evening, and fouled the runways for two days. Flights to and from New York were canceled for all of Saturday and part of Sunday.

Saturday, December 30th: I shoveled my driveway four times, between phone calls to the airlines and my travel agent. Eventually I was able to get Sue and I booked on a flight for Sunday evening, while Gregg had made his own arrangements.

Sunday, December 31st (New Year's Eve): The car service came right on time and picked us up to go to JFK. Sue and I were finally on our way! I settled back in my seat, enjoying the sunny afternoon, secure in the knowledge that Sue and I were finally on our way to London.

... except that Murphy wasn't quite through with me yet: we got a flat tire. The driver pulled off the highway, and I helped him remove our luggage from the trunk. Let's see, spare tire, jack, ... NO JACK HANDLE! I couldn't believe it! I just started to laugh in the middle of the street. What else could I do? It was right about then that I told Sue that I was seriously considering changing the name of the CD to "Murphy's Law". We got the tire changed with a borrowed jack handle, and we were on our way again. We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare.

We sat and waited; at midnight we wished each other a happy New Year, and finally pushed back from the terminal.

Monday, January 1st, 2001: After an uneventful flight, we arrived at Heathrow on a gray, rainy (naturally -- this was London, after all!) New Year's Day morning. We headed straight for the hotel, to try to catch up on some sleep and get ready for the first session the next day at Abbey Road. In the afternoon, Geoff and Jason met me at the hotel (they were staying with friends) and we walked around the city and then had dinner. It was fun.

Tuesday, January 2nd: We arrived at Abbey Road studios in time for the first session at 10 a.m.

The studio is located in a quiet residential area of London and you could almost pass it without realizing that it was there. Outside, other than the famous wall where people sign their names and good wishes to the Beatles (I signed it, too!), the building facade looks pretty much like all the other large homes on the block.

Inside, however, it is a modern recording studio. There are many posters in the hallways depicting many of the musical ensembles and movie scores that have been recorded there. I must admit that my heart was pounding a little bit, between the excitement of walking the halls of this famous building where so many great recordings have been made and realizing that so many years of dreams and months of preparation were finally being realized.

As I stepped in to the control room of Studio 2, I was met by Gregg Squires and Mike Sheady, Gregg's engineer.

I looked down at the orchestra, being seated and tuning up. Gregg showed me down the stairs, and over to the isolation booth.

Even though we had made the scratch track for the vocals, I sang along with the orchestra from the booth. My voice could be heard via headphones by Sue at the podium, and by several key musicians such as the keyboardist and percussionist.

In this way, we were able to establish my tempos and phrasing without my voice being recorded at the same time. Of course, I could hear the orchestra and my own voice through the headphones in the isolation booth.

The orchestra was phenomenal. We would rehearse each song once or twice, and then record it. If everything sounded perfect, we would move on to the next piece of music. The first session finished a few minutes early. I think the Philharmonia Orchestra sounded like a million bucks, and when you hear the CD, I expect that you will agree.

Following the first session, we had lunch in the Commissary at the studio. We talked over the session, and reviewed what was coming up at the next session. After we left the studio, Geoff Jason and I returned to my hotel and then went walking in London again. We decided to see whether we could get tickets to see a show. We found center orchestra seats for a musical version of "The Witches Of Eastwick". Suffice it to say that I fell asleep before the end of the first act, and we left at intermission.

Wednesday, January 3rd: We arrived at Abbey Road early, and took a private, guided tour of the studios.

It is a fascinating place. The session began precisely at 10 a.m., and we had another great session with the orchestra.

We had lunch in the Commissary again, and then headed back to the hotel. We had been invited for dinner at the beautiful home of Theo and Doris Gremmens, where Geoff and Jason had been staying. We departed Waterloo Station, and as Theo and Doris are gracious hosts, enjoying their company and a home cooked meal.

Thursday, January 4th: Took the tube to Abbey Road, and started right at 10 a.m. We had another silky smooth session, thanks to Patrick Garvey and the staff at Abbey Road Studios.

Members of the orchestra conveyed their compliments to Sue for a conducting job masterfully done, and many musicians commented on how much they had enjoyed working on the recording with us. We had our now customary lunch at the Commissary, and then Sue and I headed back to the hotel to pick up our luggage and depart for Heathrow.

Back home in New York, I was thrilled. The orchestra tracks sounded fantastic. Sue had really done an extraordinary job of capturing the nuances that I was looking for. We were ready for the next phase, which would be recording the vocals.

Because the orchestra was recorded in a large, live room, Gregg needed to find a studio that would approximate the same acoustic values. After a couple of weeks of research, he settled on Carriage House Studios, in Stamford, CT. On January 23rd, 2001, we had our first session to begin recording the vocals.

I had anticipated that I would need three to four sessions to complete the vocals. It turned out that I wound up needing seven! The first session was almost a washout, because I needed to learn (and I know this probably sounds silly) how to sing in the studio with this type of microphone. It was a humbling and difficult process.

Since the orchestra tracks were previously recorded, I had to sing along with whatever was on each track. I am usually a very consistent singer; however, the nuances change a little bit each time I sing a song. Even though the orchestrations had all been recorded with me singing along in the isolation booth, there were slight differences in the way I would sing the same song in the studio. Since I no longer had the conductor standing in front of me, there was very little frame of reference on how long to hold a note, or where exactly to begin singing.

Time really flew by. I was very busy during the Winter and Spring of the 2001 season. If you refer to the "Past Performances" part of the "Performance Schedule" section of this web site, you'll see that I was traveling almost three out of four weekends a month. There was one stretch where I performed in a concert or a show (Fiddler On The Roof) every weekend for eight weeks straight.

Gregg Squires was involved with other recording projects, and sometimes when I was available for a session, he was out of town. Sometimes when Gregg and I were available, the studio was not. A couple of times another artist would book the studio for an entire week, and my single-day, three hour sessions would have to be rescheduled. We had to cancel at least once because of bad weather, and in February I came down with bronchitis, and had to reschedule several sessions. The delays got very frustrating, especially since I had originally hoped to release the CD on February 1st.

Each session was exhausting. I really had to learn how to pace myself during these sessions, or I would get vocally tired. During the performance of a difficult role in a show, there is usually some off-stage time to rest and recoup for your next scene. In the studio, I was singing at full performance level all the time, and I had to be careful to take many breaks to rest and re-hydrate myself with tea and water.

Fortunately, my wife Monica attended all the sessions, and helped me to remember to pace myself. She is an excellent voice teacher, and would make suggestions during the sessions. As the person who is most familiar with my singing and my voice, it was a great comfort to have her there to advise me.

The session that was most fun was the day that we recorded "Sit Down, You're Rockin' The Boat" and "Ya Got Trouble". Since these are songs with a large ensemble, I asked a number of my friends and colleagues to sing.

Finally, the recording was done, and then the mixing and mastering phase began. Essentially, this is the time when we listened very carefully to each track, deciding where to make any edits, and to clean up any mistakes. Gregg sent me the "approval copy" late in March.

This was the final version from which the CD would be pressed. I listened to it several times, and eventually found one edit/change that had been forgotten. This took several more weeks to complete.

I began working on the artwork and liner notes. It was interesting trying to fit everything I wanted to say within the allotted space. The graphic artist would prepare proofs of the CD cover, and then I would make changes. I kept finding mistakes (mostly my own), and things kept being added at the last minute, such as copyright notices, or fixed, like spelling mistakes. This phase was frustrating, as well.

Finally, everything was ready for printing and pressing. On May 21st, I dropped off the check for the initial pressing of 2,000 copies. I want to thank all of you who have ordered the CD, not only for pre-ordering, but also for your patience with the many delays. I hope you enjoy the Craig Schulman On Broadway CD!

Photo Credits for this column: Gregg Squires, Snowbound Aircraft Jason Ahrens, most other photos.