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Julia Riew

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Julia Riew is an American composer-lyricist, librettist, and songwriter.

Early life and education

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Riew is a third generation Korean-American who grew up in St. Louis, Missouri.[1][2] She was involved with music from a young age, starting violin lessons at age 4. She began writing music at age 7, and had written a musical of her own by age 15.[3] While in school, she was a member of the St. Louis Children's Choirs[4] and the Arch City Kids Theater Troupe, which put on cabarets to raise money for juvenile diabetes.[2] Her family later moved to New York City and then Connecticut.[5]

She attended Harvard University. Although initially in a pre-med program, she graduated in May 2022 with a concentration in Theater, Dance, and Media and Music.[1][6][7] While there, she was a founding member of the Asian Students Arts Project.[2]

Musical theater

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College work

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Riew wrote her first college musical, Hitched, in 2018.[7] In April 2019, East Side, a student-produced musical Riew co-wrote about a Chinese-American family dealing with gentrification in New York City, premiered at Harvard's Farkas Hall.[8] After seeing the show, the American Repertory Theater (ART) commissioned Riew to write two family oriented shows: Thumbelina: A Little Musical, which premiered in December 2019 at the Loeb Center, and Jack and the Beanstalk: A Musical Adventure.[2] In June 2022 she premiered Alice's Wonderland at the Coterie Theater in Kansas City, Missouri, a show she co-wrote with J. Quinton Johnson.[7]

Dive

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For her senior thesis, Riew began developing a musical inspired by the Korean folktale Shimcheong and her own experiences with Korean-American identity.[9][10] In January 2022 she shared some of her music on TikTok, where as of August 2024 she had a following of 135,000 users and 3.5 million likes.[1][6] Shimcheong: A Folktale was later renamed to Dive. Riew put on her thesis in February and March 2022 on Harvard's campus.[6] In February 2023 Riew performed several of her songs as part of Playbill's Songwriter Series.[11]

In April 2023 ART announced they would further develop Dive with the help of Riew, Diana Son, and Diane Paulus.[1][12] Other upcoming projects include her musical ENDLESS (dir. by Zi Alikhan, premiering in Korea), her YA fantasy novel The Last Tiger (co-written with brother Brad Riew, publishing with Penguin Random House in Aug 2025), and her Middle Grade fantasy novel Shimcheong (publishing with Harper Collins summer 2026).[13]

Awards

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  • 2022 Fred Ebb Award[14]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d "American Repertory Theater to develop Julia Riew's Korean folktale musical, 'Dive'". Harvard Gazette. 2023-04-13. Retrieved 2023-04-16.
  2. ^ a b c d El Homaïssi, Lama (2019-12-17). "Julia Riew '21 brings 'Thumbelina' to the A.R.T. stage". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved 2023-04-16.
  3. ^ "There was no Korean Disney princess, so Harvard student Julia Riew created her own". HS Insider. 2022-05-23. Retrieved 2023-04-16.
  4. ^ Gieseke, Drew (26 May 2022). "How St. Louis Native Julia Riew Created a Trailblazing Musical About a Korean Princess". Ladue News. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
  5. ^ Marcelo, Philip (2022-03-04). "Harvard senior's Disney-inspired Korean musical a hit online". AP NEWS. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
  6. ^ a b c Cho, Isabella B (5 April 2022). "Reimagining a Korean Folktale, Julia Riew '22 Finds A Part of Herself". The Harvard Crimson. Retrieved 2023-04-16.
  7. ^ a b c Aggarwal-Schifellite, Manisha (2022-03-28). "Taking a right at musical theater". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
  8. ^ Aggarwal-Schifellite, Manisha (2019-04-09). "'East Side' story a Harvard musical". Harvard Gazette. Retrieved 2023-04-16.
  9. ^ Moon, Aimee (14 January 2022). "TikTok fans embrace the soaring song of a Disney-inspired Korean American princess". www.wbur.org. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
  10. ^ Kwon, Mee-yoo (2022-02-09). "Harvard student transforms Shimcheong into Disney-inspired Korean princess". koreatimes. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
  11. ^ Hall, Margaret (21 February 2023). "Playbill Songwriter Series: Julia Riew Shares Her Disney-Inspired Song About a Korean Princess". Playbill. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  12. ^ Culwell-Block, Logan (12 April 2023). "Julia Riew's Viral Hit Korean Folktale Musical to Be Developed by American Repertory Theater by All Female, Asian-American Creative Team". Playbill. Retrieved 16 April 2023.
  13. ^ "About". Julia Riew. 2020-05-23. Retrieved 2024-08-18.
  14. ^ Rabinowitz, Chloe. "Julia Riew to Receive 18th Annual Fred Ebb Award". BroadwayWorld.com. Retrieved 2023-04-17.
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