She’s lived in Switzerland, Los Angeles, Wyoming, Italy, Seattle, New York, you name it. With a Vaudeville comedian for a grandfather, and the creator of the Learjet for a father, Tina Lear used this high octane fuel to power her life, which has led her on a long, fascinating journey to where she is now: writing musicals in New York City.
When she was four, she started playing the piano at the Geneva Conservatory in Switzerland. She showed a gift for music, and continued playing classically for ten years, and then she heard her first Joni Mitchell album. Enter songwriting. At 15, she was one of the youngest students at California Institute of the Arts as a composition major. By the time she was 18, she was a member of the Warner Brothers Film Actors workshop, and had played at the famed Troubador Club in Los Angeles.
At this point, her career went underground for almost 20 years, during which a long-term marriage ran its volatile course, ultimately enriching her life with three children. When that marriage ended, she moved to Seattle, where she earned her Bachelors Degree in Applied Behavioral Science from Bastyr University, thinking she might begin a career in counseling. “But,” she confesses,”I finally realized that my life’s blood is in music.” The rich results of that realization can be heard in the three CDs that followed: Classified Ads (1994), Full Moon Big Circle (1998) and The Road Home (2000).
In 1999, she met award-winning playwright Elise Forier-Edie, who had a script she wanted to turn into a musical. This was the beginning of an incredibly productive collaboration. That first musical, Escape from the Box, was just the beginning. In the decade since they met, she and Forier have created three additional musicals: Valerie and the Bear (2002), the award-winning Cathy’s Creek, (published by Dramatic Publishing, 2005), and Rebel Girls. Lear has also gone on to earn her Masters Degree at NYU in Musical Theatre Writing (2007).
Friends had told her for years she should write for Broadway, but Tina had no idea she might actually end up there. And now, with “Rebel Girls” in development only two miles from where her grandfather’s show “Hellzapoppin’” was, at the time, the longest running show on Broadway, who knows what the future holds? One thing for sure, “Tina Lear” is a name that Broadway stars are starting to know and respect. Stay tuned…
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Lear Highlights
AWARDS
2008 - Winner – Pop/Adult Contemporary – The Great American Song Contest Cabaret of Tina Lear songs, Laurie Beechman Theatre, NYC
2007 - Named one of the “50 to Watch” – Cover of Dramatists Guild Magazine, NYC
2005 - Cathy’s Creek published, Dramatic Publishing, Woodstock, IL
2003 - Cathy’s Creek awarded the Bonderman play development award, Indianapolis, IN
2002 - Valerie and the Bear showcased at the Seven Devils Playwrights Conference. NYC
1992 - New Folk Finalist, Kerrville Folk Festival, Kerrville, TX
1992 - Winner, Columbia Folk Festival, Spokane, WA
1991 - Three Honorable Mentions – Billboard Annual Songwriting Contest
SPECIAL APPEARANCES
2010 - NE06 Concert - 6th Annual New Emerging Outstanding musical theatre writers (York Theater, NYC)
2002 - Benaroya Hall – Seattle (benefit concert for Operation Sacklunch)
1994 - SXSW Music Conference
1995 - Northwest Folklife
1996 - Women of Wisdom Conference
1994, 1998 - Jazz Alley – Seattle
2000 - Bluebird Café – Nashville