Music in your
voice, for
your voice.
Eighteen years of musical theater experience — as a composer, orchestrator, and pianist. Custom cuts, arrangements, transcriptions, and tracks built for the singer, not the shelf.
- 01Sheet Music
- 02Arrangements & Orchestrations
- 03Performance Tracks
- 04Coaching
- 05About
Sheet Music
Audition cuts, piano arrangements, transcriptions, and full-song transpositions — all starting from what you bring me. Choose what you need below.
Audition Cuts
Upload your sheet music, mark the measures you want, and specify what the cut needs to do. You'll receive a professionally notated result — clean, performable, no back-and-forth.
Piano Arrangements
Sheet music exists, but it doesn't sound like the song. You know what the recording sounds like — the groove, the featured riff, the moment the chorus opens up. That's what I write: an accompaniment that puts all of that under your voice, so when you walk in with just a pianist, it still sounds like the song you fell in love with.
Transcriptions
The sheet music doesn't exist, or what exists isn't right. Send me the recording — YouTube link, streaming link, or an audio file — and I'll transcribe it by ear. You choose the format: a full piano reduction with every musical detail, or a clean lead sheet with melody and chord symbols. Turnaround depends on the complexity of the recording and how clearly the parts sit in the mix.
Transpositions
A full-song key transposition of your existing sheet music. I mirror your current layout precisely — same system, same page breaks, same look — just in a new key. This is a transposition, not a re-engrave or a formatting cleanup.
Arrangements & Orchestrations
Custom arrangements for any setting — from an intimate piano-and-voice cabaret set to a full orchestra, or the whole production handled start to finish. Tell me your forces — or just tell me the vision — and I'll take it from there.
Cabaret Arrangements
Custom arrangements for Green Room 42, 54 Below, and any stage in between. Tell me your band, your vision, and your repertoire — I'll write arrangements that serve the show, the room, and the singer. From solo piano to a full rhythm section with horns and strings, every configuration is on the table.
Large Ensemble Orchestrations
Full orchestrations for whatever forces you have — concert, gala, theater pit, personal project, or anything else. Priced at real Local 802 (NYC musicians' union) minimum orchestration rates — no markup, just what the work is actually scaled at.
Orchestrations for live performance are generally straightforward. If your project involves producing a recording intended for commercial release or distribution — streaming, broadcast, sync — there are licensing and rights considerations that vary depending on the material. Selecting "Recording/studio session involvement" above routes this to an inquiry so we can sort that out together first.
Performance Tracks
Real orchestrations rendered through a $15k+ library stack built over years — not canned MIDI, not a template. Tiered to your purpose, from full-orchestra concert tracks to piano-only rehearsal aids to commercial-grade mockups of original work.
Custom Performance Tracks
Fully rendered backing tracks built from real orchestrations — not loop libraries, not stock MIDI. Whether you're a singer who needs a track for a performance or a composer who wants to hear their work realized, these are produced through a $15k+ library stack assembled over years of theater and concert work.
- Piano + rhythm section (bass, drums, guitar as needed)
- Stereo WAV delivery
- Full orchestration through the complete library stack
- Mixed for live playback
- Stereo WAV + stems by section
- Everything in Performance
- Full mastering pass
- Sync-ready metadata on request
- Two rounds of revisions
Audition Prep Tracks
Purpose-built tracks for learning your audition material with precision — whether you're memorizing a melody, internalizing your part, or learning to hold your own against harmony. Two track systems, each designed around a specific kind of learning. For callback and appointment auditions, these are built from the music you provide — no surprises in the room.
You receive a series of tracks where the melody (played on saxophone) gradually fades out across the set, leaving you with piano accompaniment alone by the final track. Each step builds your independence without ever losing the musical context.
You receive a series of tracks where your part gradually fades out as the other part(s) fade in — training your ear to stay on your line when the harmony around you gets louder. By the final track, you're singing your part with no support, against full harmony.
Orchestral Mockups & Masters
Professional orchestral realizations of your original music — rendered through a $15k+ VST library and mixing template stack built over years of theater and concert work. You write the music. I make it sound like an orchestra actually played it.
- Full orchestral realization of your score or lead sheet
- Delivered as stereo WAV + stems by section
- Ideal for pitching, demos, and internal reference
- Everything in Reference Mockup
- Full mix pass with dynamic shaping and balance
- Suitable for reels, presentations, and pitches to labels or supervisors
- One round of revisions included
- Everything in Presentation Ready
- Full mastering pass to commercial loudness standards
- Delivered as mastered stereo WAV + full stem package
- Two rounds of revisions included
- Sync-ready metadata on request
Audition Coaching
This isn't a voice lesson — it's everything else. The performance, the room, the material, the cut, the moment you walk through the door. I work with singers who already know their instrument and want to sharpen how they use it when it counts.
I've spent years on both sides of the piano. As a Musical Director at Green Room 42 and 54 Below, I've accompanied hundreds of auditions and performances. But the credential that shapes my coaching most directly is this: I sat at the casting table — as pianist and musical collaborator — for the Broadway production, the North American Tour, the Canadian production, and the London production of Dear Evan Hansen.
I know what the rooms are looking for. I know what makes a creative team lean forward, what makes them write your name down, and what gets you the callback. I've watched it happen hundreds of times. Now I help singers make it happen for themselves.
That knowledge is grounded in real training: a music education degree from Syracuse University with a focus in strings, voice, and composition — followed by the Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts, where I trained as a composer. Over two decades of marinating in this field at every level, from the classroom to the pit to the casting room.
My coaching focuses on performance — not vocal mechanics. I understand technique and can speak to it, but I'm not a voice teacher and I won't attempt to diagnose or address vocal issues. If you're dealing with something technical or physical, that work belongs with your voice teacher. Come to me when your instrument is ready and you want to sharpen what you do with it.
Full Production
You bring the vision, I handle the music — from the first note on the page to the downbeat. Three tiers, one point of contact.
- Full arrangement and orchestration
- Notation in Sibelius, delivered as PDF and editable file
- One round of revisions included
- Everything in Score Only
- Musician prep materials and charts
- Rehearsal scheduling and direction
- Performance Music Direction
- Everything in Score + Music Direction
- Musician sourcing and contracting
- Full production coordination
- One point of contact, start to finish
Real bar count, not an estimate — this is what Score Only is priced from, so it's worth getting right.
Jon Balcourt
Composer, orchestrator, and pianist based in New York City, with eighteen years of experience in musical theater and concert work.
I've spent my career in the rooms where music gets made — as a Musical Director, as a pit pianist, as the person at the keyboard when an understudy goes on for the first time. That experience lives in everything I write.
My work as Musical Director for At This Performance — the monthly Broadway understudy cabaret at Green Room 42 — and as an arranger for shows at 54 Below has given me a close-up view of what singers actually need from their music. Not just notes on a page, but arrangements that breathe, cuts that land, and tracks that serve the performance.
Every project I take on gets the same attention: what does this singer need to walk into that room and own it?
A fugue is built from independent voices — melody, countermelody, harmony — each one moving on its own, all locking together into a single piece. That's basically the job description: melody, lyric, arrangement, orchestration, becoming one finished piece of music.
A foundry is where raw material gets forged into something finished — deliberate, precise, built to actually hold up. Same idea here. A lead sheet, a full orchestration, a voice getting stronger through coaching — it all starts raw and gets shaped with real attention until it's ready.
And it's one roof for a lot of different crafts. Writing, arranging, orchestrating, coaching, producing — not a single tool, a whole foundry.
Questions, answered
The stuff that comes up most. If it's not here, just email — that works too.
Cuts, Audition Prep, Transpositions, Piano Arrangements, and Transcriptions are all priced the same way: $20/page for the first 2 pages, $15/page for pages 3–5, $12/page for anything past that. It's a bracket, like tax brackets — a 10-page order isn't just 10 × $12, the first few pages are still at the higher rate. The price only ever goes up as the order grows, it just grows a little slower per page the bigger it gets.
Depends on the service. For Cuts, Audition Prep, Transpositions, Piano Arrangements, and Transcriptions, a page is 16 bars — a convention that's held up in practice. For Large Ensemble Orchestrations and Full Production, a page follows the real music-industry standard (4 bars per page, matching Local 802's own rate sheet), since those are priced at actual union scale, not an in-house rate. Either way: a partial page always rounds up to a full page, and the bar count you give is trusted as-is — no fudging in either direction.
Transcription is written from scratch by ear when nothing's on paper yet. Transposition takes a chart that already exists and moves it into a new key, mirroring the original layout exactly. If you have sheet music and just need a different key, that's a transposition. If nothing's written down at all, that's a transcription.
On larger orchestration work (Cabaret arranging, Large Ensemble, and Full Production's Score Only tier), you pay a deposit at checkout rather than the full amount up front. $500 or under, it's 50% now / 50% on completion. Above $500, it's 1/3 now / 2/3 on completion. You'll get an invoice with a real payment link for the balance once the work is delivered.
A handful of things always need a real conversation before I can quote them — Music Direction, conducting, and musician contracting, specifically. Those touch my actual schedule and availability, and pricing on them depends on things a form can't account for (how close it is to your performance date, for one). Everything else — the actual writing, arranging, and orchestrating — is priced live and checks out instantly.
If your deadline's inside about a week, you'll see a note on the price breakdown flagging it as a fast turnaround. The instant-checkout price still goes through at the standard rate — I'm not going to slow down a genuinely urgent request with extra friction — but a rush premium may get added afterward, and I'll follow up directly if so.
Small adjustments — a wrong note, a tweak to a phrase, that kind of thing — are just part of getting it right, no extra charge. If a request turns into something bigger, like a substantial rewrite or a change in direction from what was originally asked for, that's a separate conversation, and I'll always talk it through with you before charging anything extra.
Everything's delivered digitally — no physical mail, no shipping. Once your project's done, you'll get a download link by email for whatever the deliverable is: a PDF, a set of audio files, whatever the service calls for.
Terms of Service
Fugue Foundry / Jon Balcourt Music Services · Last updated July 13, 2026
Fugue Foundry provides music preparation and creative services for musical theater performers, producers, and creative teams, including but not limited to: audition prep tracks, cabaret arrangements, and full production music direction/orchestration. Every service is a deliverable — a finished audio file, a written chart, a rehearsal, a score — built to your specifications and delivered on the agreed timeline.
Fugue Foundry does not guarantee, promise, or imply any particular result from the use of its services, including but not limited to: casting decisions, callbacks, audition outcomes, agent or manager interest, audience or critical reception, or commercial success of any production. These outcomes are determined by people and processes outside Fugue Foundry's control — directors, casting panels, producers, audiences — and are not something craft alone can guarantee, no matter how good the work is. You are booking the work, not a result.
If a deliverable doesn't match what was discussed at booking — wrong key, wrong cut, missed spec — I'll fix it. Small adjustments are part of getting it right and are included at no extra charge. A request that turns into something substantially larger than what was originally booked is a separate conversation, and I'll always talk it through with you before charging anything additional. "I didn't get the callback" or "the show didn't go the way I hoped" are not, on their own, grounds for revision or refund, since those outcomes sit outside what was delivered.
Payment is due at booking unless otherwise stated on the service page. Larger orchestration and arrangement work may be billed as a deposit at booking with the balance due on completion; the applicable split is shown at checkout. Refunds are issued only for Fugue Foundry's failure to deliver the agreed work, not for downstream results of that work. Specific refund windows and conditions are listed per service.
To the fullest extent permitted by law, Fugue Foundry's total liability for any claim arising from a booking is limited to the amount paid for that specific service. Fugue Foundry is not liable for indirect, incidental, or consequential damages — including lost opportunities, lost income, or career impact — arising from the use of any deliverable.
Fugue Foundry retains ownership of the specific arrangement, orchestration, or transcription created for you. What you're purchasing is a broad license to use that work freely — in auditions, performances, rehearsals, and recordings for your own purposes — for as long as you like. You may not resell, redistribute, or relicense the arrangement itself to a third party.
This applies only to the arrangement work itself. Fugue Foundry does not clear, license, or make any claim regarding rights to the underlying composition — the original song, its lyrics, or its melody remain the property of the original rights holders. It's your responsibility to secure any rights clearance a specific use may require (for example, commercial release or public performance beyond typical audition/cabaret use).
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musical theatre majors.
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