Stephen Schwartz, the prolific composer of Wicked, Pippin, Godspell, and more, has another, less flashy title on his résumé: mentor.
Last weekend, the Academy Award winner joined Young Artists of America, the region’s largest performing arts youth training program, for a student production of his musical The Prince of Egypt, which ran in London’s West End from 2020 to 2022 and is based on the Biblical story of brothers Moses and Ramses, the future Pharaoh of Egypt.
“It’s basically Wicked but with boys,” the composer shared in an interview at Strathmore before Saturday’s concert. “In both stories, they are changed for good,” he laughed.
Schwartz traveled to Maryland’s Strathmore Center to speak to the students, attend the performance, and participate in a post-show talkback moderated by former Washington Post theater critic Peter Marks.
In his decades as a mentor, Schwartz has trained countless artists through programs at the ASCAP Foundation Musical Theatre Workshop, the Kennedy Center, and more. He received an honorary Tony Award in 2015 recognizing his influence in shaping early-career theater artists.
“Helping someone become the best version of who they are as an artist is really exciting,” Schwartz says of his passion for mentoring. “I try to meet each artist where they are and make suggestions to help them.”
Founded in 2011 by brothers Rolando and Kristofer Sanz, Young Artists of America quickly grew into the region’s largest youth training program. The annual program culminates in a spring production of a major musical featuring hundreds of students performing and playing in the onstage orchestra at Strathmore’s Music Center.
Mentorship became a central component of the YAA program early on. Composer Jason Robert Brown was the first artist to work with YAA students. How did a fledgling youth training program in Montgomery County, Maryland, attract such a high-caliber composer?
“It was a cold call,” Kristofer Sanz tells DCTA. “We had footage from previous shows, and I guess that was enough to entice him.” Brown was eager to see YAA’s production of his Songs for a New World, and he conducted the youth orchestra himself. “Since then, other artists have wanted to come. It’s exciting for a composer to see their works done at a high level by kids; they want to be a part of it,” Sanz continues.
Their second call was to Stephen Schwartz in 2016. That year, he mentored their production of his musical Children of Eden. He has maintained ties with the organization ever since, and he counts himself among the fans of the YAA program. “The kids are really talented, and they have extraordinary teachers. I don’t know if there is anywhere else in America that does theater for young people with a full orchestra, so that’s always very exciting.”
The composer is also the honorary co-chair of YAA’s “Building Dreams” campaign, an $8-million fundraising initiative to build a state-of-the-art rehearsal space for YAA and other local arts groups in Rockville, Maryland. The space is expected to open in 2027 and will be Montgomery County, Maryland’s first dedicated performing arts hub.
Schwartz says such a dedicated arts space “would be a real benefit” to the entire regional arts community, which now struggles with a scarcity of rehearsal space. As the Kennedy Center prepares to close for two years, Schwartz points to the development of new programs and rehearsal spaces as vital to the region. “Nature abhors a vacuum, so when one thing is taken away, if there is goodwill and enthusiasm, that gap will start to be filled.”
Beyond YAA, Schwartz’s involvement in the DC theater goes back to the earliest days of his career. Both Pippin and Godspell, the musicals that catapulted him to fame while he was still in his early 20s, were developed at DC theaters — the National Theatre and Ford’s Theatre — before becoming major Broadway hits in the 1970s. In 1971, legendary composer Leonard Bernstein invited a young Schwartz to contribute lyrics to the Mass that Bernstein was composing for the opening of the Kennedy Center. “DC is one of the best theater towns in America,” Schwarz says.
While in town, Schwartz had the chance to meet with members of the Signature Theatre team who are now rehearsing a new production of Pippin. “Signature always does such great work, so I’m excited they are doing this,” he says of the upcoming production.
“For me, the most important thing that the arts teach is empathy,” Schwartz says of his role as a mentor. “That is something sorely lacking in America right now. I think if you participate in the arts as a young person, there’s more of an ability to bring that quality forward in your life.”
More information about Young Artists of America’s youth training programs can be found here. Information about YAA’s Building Dreams campaign can be found here.
SEE ALSO:
Young Artists of America announces new home in the heart of Rockville (news story, February 22, 2026)
