She writes:
The creative team of the musical The Notebook were able to bring a non-traditional storyline with gentle, yet powerful music to a larger scale broadway house. With ten of us in the orchestra, the music of Ingrid Michaelson and orchestrations by Carmel Dean and John Clancy gave all of us the opportunity to make a significant contribution to the sound of the show. The harp played alone at the start of the show, in scene changes, and got to set the rhythmic pulse of many of the beautiful songs. The harp was more prominent in the mix for the cast album than any I’ve heard. The ultimate reward for this unique and rewarding musical experience is a Grammy nomination! I am so grateful to have been asked to bring Ingrid's music to life, and so happy that her achievement was recognized. She has had a long career in music, but this is her first venture into this medium. The orchestra jumps in near the end of the creative process, but this show, like all shows, are years in the making.
When you are lucky enough to get hired for a broadway show, you are involved with the rehearsal, tech, preview period, and recording the cast album, usually done all in one day, the traditional theatre day off… Monday! After the Sunday matinee show, a lot of the orchestra musicians took their instruments over to the recording studio so everything would be set up and ready to go early the next morning. I needed to bring a different harp to the studio early Monday morning to get started on our first of 4 sessions that day. (As the harpist, my instrument was taken up a very steep ladder to The Notebook’s band platform at the theatre by union stage hands the first day of tech, internally mic'ed by the audio department and balanced into the mix of the show. This means that I cannot use that harp for anything else for however long the show lasts, whether that’s 3 months or 3 years.) Back at the studio, the musicians usually record many songs on their own, then the cast comes to later sessions in the day, and we do the larger ensemble numbers all together. Some of the vocal solos are recorded to our tracks during our breaks or the following day. This is done so they have control of what vocal takes they want to use on their own merit. The producers take good care of all of us while we’re there that day, providing snacks, lunches, and dinners, so we can stay focused on what we need to do. I usually spend every break tuning to reduce the risk of hearing a clunker on the album when it gets released! It is a very focused, and very fun day.
