David Kurkowski -
Music & Lyrics
“My hope is that Madame Curie’s life story will inspire and enthrall audiences, especially young girls who shy away from science and math. She is a true hero and a beacon for our time.”
Several years ago, I stumbled upon Marie Curie’s life story and felt that it would make a marvelous theatrical production. After three years of researching and outlining, I finally had what I needed to write the libretto, which was completed in early 2018. I wrote the original music over a four-month period in the summer of 2018. Because I spent so many months on the libretto, the score seemed to write itself.
Curie had a successful staged readings with music at the Dramatists Guild Mary Rodgers Room in December 2018 and at the TaDa! Theatre in October 2019. Recent months have been occupied with rewrites, discarding old songs and writing new ones, and additional readings. In April 2022, Finding Madame Curie was selected for 6 performances at Theater Row as part of CreateTheater Presents!
Other works include scores for:
Sewing the Dream, book and lyrics by Judith Estrine
Collodi the Musical, book and lyrics by Nino Pratticó
Behind the Mask, book and lyrics by Barbara Bellman (in progress)
In 2013, I completed It’s Midnight, a CD of 9 original songs, now available on Spotify, iTunes and YouTube. The title song was incorporated into Madame Curie.
I have written numerous other pieces for solo voice, chorus, and instrumental groups, including My Livin’ Will Not Be In Vain (choral work based on a sermon by Martin Luther King), The Star (a children’s Christmas song), Wake Little Child (a memorial to the children of Sandy Hook), and Follow Your Dream (an inspirational gospel inspired by Raisin in the Sun).
I was classically trained on oboe and currently play in the Lower Merion Symphony. My 2011 recording of Bach’s Concerto for Oboe and Violin can be found on YouTube. In my late 50’s I studied piano and harmony in earnest. My lessons focused on the Great American Songbook, which has had a profound impact on my own compositions. However, nothing moves me more than musical theater, which imbues an absorbing story with the magic of music. When it’s at its best, we laugh, we cry, we love every moment, and we walk out humming.