MUSE • Musicians United for Social Equity

Biography

natalie brown is a storyteller. through music, theatre, and research, she seeks to amplify voices historically excluded from western narratives and use the arts as a means for social change.

as a composer and musician, natalie works within the worlds of theatrical, contemporary, and classical music. natalie’s original creative work includes the opera adaptation of ntozake shange’s for colored girls (eugene o’neill NMTC semifinalist, new york city center/yale university), chamber music piece insomni/black (carnegie hall commission), and original musical finding eden (rave theater festival finalist). notable among her other experience, she was a write out loud contest finalist, composes incidental music for live theatre, and regularly performs her original music, also available on streaming platforms, at venues recently including new york’s 54 below and new haven’s koffee?. her next project, original musical little white lies, will premiere as part of the yale college TDAPS curricular season in february 2025.

natalie’s work is grounded in cultivating an understanding of where we are, where we’ve come from, and where we’re going; thus, academic rigor and research are essential parts of her process. natalie is currently pursuing her ba in african-american studies and music at yale university (‘25). at yale, she is a mellon mays/edward a. bouchet fellow, for which she researches the performance of race under the advisory of dr. daphne brooks.

committed to telling stories in all mediums, natalie has written multiple short plays, from slavery play (written, directed, and performed in her first grade classroom) to in the back of the bus and girl/hood. her other theatrical experience includes acting, producing, music directing, and music assisting. at yale, she studied playwriting with branden jacobs-jenkins, libretto writing with lisa kron, orchestration with kathryn alexander, and musical theater composition with mentor jeanine tesori. in the 2023-24 school year, she was named a swensen scholar in the arts for her work on new musical gun and powder (NYT critics’ pick, paper mil playhouse 2024). she was also awarded yale’s abraham beekman cox prize, given to “the most promising gifted composer in the junior class,” and the joseph lenilhon selden memorial junior award.

raised in houston, tx, she now splits her time between new haven, ct, boston, ma, and new york city.