Featured Composer - Sarah Jin

High school senior Sarah Jin’s path to musical theater has taken her through studying piano, playing in string orchestra, discovering rock bands and composition. All of those influences came with challenges and inspirations, combining to give her a very specific artistic voice.

Her first experience with UNCSA came after her sophomore year in high school, when she enrolled in Professor Michael Rothkopf’s Summer Music Intensive. "I fell in love with UNCSA from there," she says, "and decided to come here for my junior and senior years." Though she had written a few string quartets, at this point she turned her full attention to musical theater, drawn by its “more comprehensive way of storytelling.”

This year has been devoted to a full-length musical called "Death Wears a High School Uniform," under the tutelage of Dr. Rothkopf. The story follows five teenagers, one who has a secret deadly curse, as they struggle to find themselves in the bizarre drama of high school. Some important themes include the confusion that comes with grief, the role of mental health in relationships, and the balance between a personal moral compass and conventional morality.

Sarah has a strong sense of prosody, matching up words and music in ways that feel both fresh and inevitable. "Suddenly," a pivotal song from her musical-in-progress, will be performed this spring by Voice faculty member Jodi Burns. To see a score, click on the image below: