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Linda has been blessed to work with so many talented individuals throughout her career. We have enjoyed hearing her magnificent voice complemented by very beautiful musical arrangements of new songs as well as classics. We've gotten to know some of her fabulous musicians and have marveled at their talent and extensive credits. For this edition of THE VOICE, the Editorial Staff decided to go behind the scenes to learn more about the talented gentleman who is responsible for many of the arrangements and orchestrations we have heard live in concert and on Linda's recordings. This talented “behind-the-scenes” guy is none other than Kim Scharnberg. Before getting up close and personal with Kim, we wanted to learn more about his very successful career since graduating with highest honors from the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York where he studied composing and arranging with Rayburn Wright and Manny Albam. Kim has arranged for a wide variety of artists including (in alphabetical order): Julie Andrews, Laura Branigan, Betty Buckley, Linda Eder, Michael Feinstein, Jennifer Holliday, Mark Isham, Sumi Jo, Tracy Lawrence, Edwin McCain, Liza Minnelli, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, The Pointer Sisters, LeAnn Rimes, Sister Hazel, Spyro Gyra, Tower of Power, Travis Tritt, Ronan Tynan, Ben Vereen and Trisha Yearwood. His arrangements have been performed by the Boston, National, Philadelphia, Houston, Minnesota, Atlanta and St. Louis Symphony Orchestras as well as many others.
Kim has orchestrated the Broadway shows Jekyll & Hyde, The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Civil War and the London production of Doctor Dolittle as well as the national and international productions of those shows. He composed the score for Houston's Alley Theatre production of the Brecht play In the Jungle of Cities for their 50 th anniversary. Other theatre projects include: Inherit the Wind (Alley Theatre), Silver Dollar (Goodspeed Theatre), Romeo and Juliet the Musical (Ordway) and the upcoming production of Little Women. He has done orchestrations for several feature films including A River Runs Through It, Quiz Show, Made in America, Fly Away Home, Miami Rhapsody, Alaska, The Net, The Getaway, Fire in the Sky and Nowhere to Run. His television credits include: Sledgehammer!, Dallas, Knot's Landing, Ed, Briscoe County, Jr., The Edge, Sliders, Party of Five and three Incredible Hulk movies-of-the-week. Kim was co-producer of the Grammy nominated Jekyll & Hyde cast recording, Jekyll & Hyde – The Complete Work, The Scarlet Pimpernel cast recording, The Scarlet Pimpernel Encore!, The Civil War concept album and Linda Eder's Gold and Christmas Stays the Same (all for Atlantic Records). Other albums he has arranged and orchestrated include Empire Brass, all of Linda Eder's albums, CELLO, the concept album of Jekyll & Hyde and the Christmas album by Jung (also produced for Atlantic Records). Kim co-produced and conducted the orchestra for the song “Gold,” which was featured in the opening ceremonies for the 2002 Winter Olympics. In June, the Atlanta Symphony performed an entire evening of his arrangements with the rock bands Sister Hazel and Edwin McCain. His arrangements have also been a part of the Boston Pops television specials the past two years on the Fourth of July, last year on A&E with Linda Eder and this year on CBS with LeAnn Rimes singing two songs, “We Can” and Kim's arrangement of "America the Beautiful,” which also featured the 360 voice Mormon Tabernacle Choir. The Editorial Staff of THE VOICE recently had the opportunity to speak with Kim. We found him to be very down to earth and extremely witty. We know you will enjoy this glimpse into the creative mind of this incredibly talented man. VOICE: Where did you grow up and receive your first exposure to music? KIM: Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Hey, did you hear the one about the singer from Minnesota? VOICE: That sure rings a bell! Did you grow up in a musical family? KIM: My oldest brother is a professional French hornist who teaches horn at the University of North Texas and is president of the International Horn Society. My other brother played “at” the saxophone, my mother played a little piano and occasionally we'd let my father play the radio. So no, not really. VOICE: How did you first become really interested in music? KIM: Being around my oldest brother, I'd go to lots of orchestra and band concerts from a very early age. I remember doing my first concert review in second grade for Show and Tell – it went something like “loud, soft, soft, loud, soft, really loud!” Plus I had this music teacher in 3 rd grade, Mrs. Wolf, who separated the class into those with musical ability and those without. Guess who was in the part withOUT ability? Dear Mrs. Wolf… VOICE: We hope Dear Mrs. Wolf lived long enough to witness your success in music. What was the first instrument you learned to play? KIM: The first and only instrument I learned to play was the trombone. VOICE: Do you still enjoy playing the trombone? KIM: I don't really play any more and I really miss it, but I considered a second or third comeback after playing a drive-by trombone solo on Jack Murphy's album. VOICE: A picture seems to be coming to mind of a trombone playing Santa Claus! We'll talk about that a little later, but let's go back to the beginning of your relationship with Frank and Linda. Please tell us how you became part of the Wildhorn family. KIM: I met Frank in Los Angeles at a studio I was part of and he told me he was looking for an orchestrator for a musical he was bringing to Broadway – this was 1985 or '86! The rest is history as they say! VOICE: What was your first project with Frank? KIM: Our first project together was in 1986 and was the original demo for Jekyll & Hyde. It featured important early songs like “The Miracle of Chemistry” and “The Ballad of Jekyll & Hyde,” but also “Alive” and fragments of other great tunes that eventually made it into the show! Frank played the piano and we overdubbed an orchestra on top of that. This was pre-Linda and pre-Leslie Bricusse so a lot has changed since then. VOICE: Jekyll & Hyde certainly has enjoyed a long life and continues to entertain musical theatre lovers all around the world. You must be very proud of this accomplishment. KIM: I think it's great that after all the years it took to get it to Broadway amidst all the nay sayers that it really has endured and will endure for years. VOICE: It wasn't too long after your first project with Frank that you met Linda. When was the first time you heard Linda sing? What was the song and what was your reaction? KIM: 1987, 1988? I remember being over at Frank's house and he showed me the Star Search video of all of her performances back to back and being totally amazed. Plus she'd just won a hundred grand and still seemed pretty darn nice and that was cool! VOICE: It sounds like you were pretty impressed with Linda's talent from the first time you heard her sing. It must be so amazing to work with her in the recording studio. Can you share with us other projects have you done with Frank and Linda? KIM: It started with being in London recording the original Jekyll pre-cast album with Colm Wilkinson and hasn't stopped since then. I remember hearing “Someone Like You” in a mall in L.A. in 1990 or so and thinking that Linda could really be going somewhere… Each album has been a great experience and is always something new and fun. I'm very lucky to have Linda to arrange for because, besides her incredible voice, she lets me take chances and be creative every step of the way. VOICE: Linda is very lucky to have you to arrange for her. It must have been her idea for you to play Santa Claus in her return to Broadway at the Gershwin Theatre. KIM: I have no idea what you're talking about… (deny, deny, deny) hmmm, do you mean my professional performing debut on Broadway? I vaguely recall that it was Dave Hart's idea that Linda wholeheartedly endorsed. It seemed like a good idea until after the first show when I realized that I had to drive an hour and a half for a four-minute gig in a Santa costume for four more concerts AFTER Christmas. Gee, why was the suit rental so cheap?? The hardest part was that Jim Pugh, one of my trombone idols when I was growing up, was playing in the band right behind me while I hammed it up with Linda. Actually it was fun if only slightly embarrassing because my son Will got to see it and tell all the audience members he was sitting near that his Dad was Santa and that Santa plays the trombone. VOICE: That must have been fun and the audience definitely enjoyed it. Let's switch gears and talk about some of your latest work. You recently produced an album for Kaitlyn Lusk, a fourteen-year-old rising star and huge Linda Eder fan. It must have been a different type of experience working with someone so young. KIM: Kaitlyn is pretty amazing and very mature for
her age! I'd gone to college with her father so after he sent me some
rough demos, the first thing I did was take her to Linda's Carnegie
Hall concert this past February. She's a huge fan of Linda's and really
sees her as a model for her own career. We just finished recording
an album and lots of good things are starting to happen. She's already
sung with the Baltimore Symphony and on New Year's Eve she sang with
the Boston Pops! Not bad for a kid who just went on a field trip to
Boston's Symphony Hall with her 8 th grade class last May!
VOICE: Kaitlyn's very lucky to actually be living the dream of so many young girls who have been influenced by Linda – all those girls who will one day recall growing up with Linda's music. Were any other members of the Wildhorn family involved in this album? KIM: I worked with the players and friends that I know are great and would be perfect for this project, which just happens to be a lot of Linda's band. David Finck, Clint deGanon, Peter Calo and Stephanie Cummins all contributed to this album which just came out. Plus Jack Murphy wrote a beautiful lyric for one song and he and his wife sang back up on a new version of “Put a Little Love in Your Heart.” If anyone is interested in Kaitlyn, you can check her out at www.kaitlynlusk.com ! ** VOICE: You are now involved with a new show, Little Women. Please tell us a little about this project. KIM: There is not that much to tell at this point. The show was postponed from starting in January until September. Jason Howland (Jekyll conductor, Pimpernel and Civil War music supervisor and all around good guy) is the composer with lyrics by Mindi Dickstein, book by Allan Knee and directed by Susan Schulman. All the pertinent information can be found at: http://www.playbill.com/news/article/82984.html . My personal feelings on Little Women are that it has a wonderful score that I'm really looking forward to orchestrating! Jason and I have a very good history together, and I think that this is one of those shows that's really going to succeed – great tunes, a wonderful family-oriented story and a solid cast. Obviously I'm disappointed that we weren't able to start last month, but I think their decision to wait for the perfect person to play Jo is a good one and will make the show that much stronger when it does go. Plus I'm good at waiting for shows to happen. Stay tuned… VOICE: We look forward to hearing more about this project when it does happen. We've spoken about your work and now we'd like to get to know a little more about what makes you tick. Can you share with us who or what inspires you in your work? KIM: Gee, that's a tough one because each project is so individual, but in general I'd have to say it's my family who inspires my soul and it's my love of music that makes me want to try new things and get better with each song. VOICE: Both are wonderful sources of inspiration that also keep changing and growing with each new project. How do you manage to come up with a fresh take on classic songs like “The Impossible Dream” which have been sung and recorded so many times and in so many different ways? KIM: I figure that if you're going to do a song that everybody knows there better be a good reason for doing it and for making it something different! I kept calling that song “Mission: Impossible Dream” because what are you going to do with a song that's been heard and arranged a million times? I usually have to think about it for several days and then I sit by myself in a little room and think and think some more, play a couple of chords on the piano and then play solitaire on the computer. After awhile I realize that I have to get something done so I make some more coffee and put the first few notes down. After that, it usually comes pretty fast. That's one of the things I love about Linda – she or Frank will just give me a song title, the key she wants to sing it in, and then the next time we talk about it is at the session with a whole bunch of musicians playing it! I think that's a certain level of trust that can only happen after years of working together. VOICE: It's certainly a partnership that has given us some beautiful musical creations. You must have a favorite song that Linda performs today. KIM: There's that old chestnut called “Vienna” that's still pretty perky! VOICE: You'll have a whole bunch of Linda's fans agreeing with you on that one! Is it possible for you to name the key musical influence in your life? KIM: Another tough one – please turn the interrogation light off! I'd probably have to say Max Northrup, my elementary and junior high band director who performed the very first arrangement I ever wrote in 7th grade. It took me nine months to write and I made my own music paper since I didn't know you could buy it! There's also Rayburn Wright, my arranging teacher in college who was musical director at Radio City for years and years and who still influences every note I write (and erase) even though he's been dead for quite some time! VOICE: It's very evident that music is the center of your life. What type of music might we find you listening to when you're not working? KIM: I have the strangest CD collection on the planet. In my car I have the new records by Steely Dan and Sting, a bunch of CDs my friends have made, Ella Fitzgerald Sings Gershwin box set, Debussy, a Peggy Lee bootleg and some Balinese percussion music. Don't even ask what's in my studio or in my living room… Oh, and of course the new Linda Eder Greatest Hits album – you have that, don't you? VOICE: Oh, if only there was one! Here's one that will really get you thinking! What interests do you have aside from music? KIM: There's something else besides music? Wow – when did that start? Actually I like spending time with my family and especially with my son doing whatever they're up to. VOICE: You've had and will continue to have a great career and one that you obviously thoroughly enjoy. After this one, we'll let you off the hook! Please tell us what has been one of the most thrilling highlights of your career. KIM: I've been very lucky to have a wonderful career in music with so many great moments and my work with Linda and Frank has to fill a lot of those great moments (being Santa notwithstanding)! I absolutely love the fact that there's a shot of my son in Linda's Christmas Special that they show on Bravo every year. He miraculously stays three years old and has a Santa hat on year after year! Hey wait – I'm seeing a pattern here… VOICE: Ah, Santa in training for the future! It has been great speaking with you and learning more about you and your amazing career. Thank you for taking the time to do this interview for THE VOICE. KIM: You're welcome. It's been very enjoyable. **
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