Music made
for human
voices.
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
- 05Full Production
- 06About
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.
Arrangements & Orchestrations
Custom arrangements for any setting — from an intimate piano-and-voice cabaret set to a full orchestra. Tell me your forces and I'll write to them.
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. Tell me what you're working with and what you need, and I'll write to it at a Broadway pit level of craft and detail.
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. I'm happy to walk through what applies to your project and help you navigate it. Just mention it in your inquiry and we'll sort it out together.
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
Don't know exactly? A rough guess is fine — Jon will confirm the real scope before finalizing.
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?