Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra

Born in Toronto and based out of New York City, Sean Mayes enjoys an active and varied career internationally as a conductor, music director, orchestrator, arranger, composer, author, and educator, with his work spanning numerous musical styles through the world’s largest theatres and concert halls, between Broadway, theatre, opera, classical and orchestral Pops.

In the Broadway community, Mr Mayes is the incoming Worldwide Music Supervisor for Disney’s THE LION KING, and Music Supervisor & Co-Orchestrator for the Broadway bound ALI: The Musical; composed by American classical conductor Teddy Abrams & rap legend Q-Tip, premiering at the Nederlander Theatre in Chicago in Spring 2025. Mr Mayes is also Music Director for Broadway luminary André De Shields.

Previous Broadway credits include time as a Conductor for two Tony Award®-winning productions, the new MJ: The Musical and HADESTOWN. Mr Mayes is a frequent music director & orchestrator of numerous engagements within the Broadway community.

As a guest conductor, recent conducting engagements include the American Pops Orchestra in Black Broadway: A Proud History, a Limitless Future for National Television on PBS, featuring a select star line up of Broadway’s most established Black performers, and as Conductor & Co-Orchestrator for the World Premiere of The Voice of Whitney: A Symphonic Celebration at the Ravinia Festival with the Chicago Philharmonic, a brand new concert tribute featuring the original master recordings of Whitney Houston’s vocals set to new orchestrations, produced in collaboration with the Estate of Whitney Houston, Park Avenue Artists, and Primary Wave Music.

Internationally, Mayes serves as a Conductor and Music Supervisor of productions across the globe. In Fall 2022, Mr Mayes served as Music Director & Conductor of the new musical MANDELA, inspired by the life of Nelson Mandela and co-produced by the Mandela family for production at the Young Vic Theatre in London, UK. Additional recent credits include serving as Music Supervisor for the International Finnish Premiere of the musical COME FROM AWAY.

At home in Canada, Mayes was Music Director & Conductor of the all-Canadian premiere of THE COLOR PURPLE in 2019, for which he was awarded the 2020 Merritt Award for Outstanding Musical Direction.

As Music Supervisor, recent additional work includes supervision of BLACK HERSTORY x AFROPUNK at Lincoln Center, an all immersive two-day joint event featuring an all-star lineup of Black musical talent; and as Music Supervisor of the premiere of RENT: In Concert at the Kennedy Center; a new orchestral concert production of the hit musical, performed with permission from the Jonathan Larson Estate. 

As a composer, orchestrator, and arranger, Mayes’ work is frequently performed in venues across North America & Europe. As Music Director for Broadway luminary André De Shields, Mr Mayes was Music Director, Orchestrator & Arranger for An Evening With André De Shields with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2021. This past season, Mayes’ Merritt Award winning compositions were featured in the Canadian national tour of FALL ON YOUR KNEES, the anticipated stage adaptation of the ground-breaking Canadian novel by author Ann-Marie MacDonald, for which Mayes also served as Music Supervisor, having toured at Canadian Stage (Toronto), Neptune Theatre (Halifax), the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), and the Grand Theatre (London). Mr Mayes’ compositions were also recently heard in the Mainstage production of KING LEAR in the 2023 Season of the Stratford Festival.

Equally at ease in the classical world, a new opera, Aportia Chryptych: A Black Opera for Portia White, composed and orchestrated by Mr Mayes alongside Canadian multidisciplinary artist HAUI, made its World Premiere at the Canadian Opera Company in the COC’s 2023/2024 season, for which Mr Mayes also served as Conductor.

As an author, Mayes’ leading writing and scholarship is uniquely attuned to the ongoing conversation of unpacking systemic issues surrounding representation in theatre and arts.

He is a published author on the role of Black music directors and disproportionately represented artists on Broadway in Reframing the Musical, published by Palgrave Macmillan, and on the retracing of Black practitioners through British musical theatre history in An Inconvenient Black History of British Musical Theatre also by Bloomsbury Publishing, which was celebrated for release in concert at Wigmore Hall in London in 2021.

His third anticipated text via Bloomsbury featuring interviews with theatre industry leaders of color, Conversations in Color: Exploring North American Musical Theatre, was published in November 2023.

Mr Mayes is a member of the Recording Academy, and holds degrees in music, education, and music direction from McGill University and the University of Surrey, UK. 

Mandy Gonzalez is an accomplished film, TV, stage actor and author. She possesses one of  the most powerful and versatile contemporary voices of our time. Mandy has starred on Broadway in the megahit Hamilton as Angelica Schuyler. She also originated Nina Rosario in the Tony Award-winning Broadway musical, In The Heights, for which Mandy received a Drama Desk Award. Mandy also starred as Elphaba in the Broadway production of Wicked, blowing the roof off of New York’s Gershwin Theatre each night as she belted out the signature song, Defying Gravity. 

Mandy has just performed a solo concert at Carnegie Hall with the NY Pops, bringing Lin Manuel Miranda’s catalogue to a symphony stage in Everything I Know: Mandy Gonzalez sings Lin-Manuel Miranda. It is a symphonic celebration of the songwriter whose works and melodies have shaped a generation.

Mandy received an OBIE Award and overwhelming critical praise for her performance in the Off-Broadway production of Eli’s Comin’. Television viewers have had the pleasure of seeing Mandy in her recurring roles in the hit series Madam Secretary, BULL, Quantico, and alongside Steve Martin, Martin Short, and Selena Gomez in Only Murders in the Building. Equally at home on the big and small screen, she has appeared in Across the Universe directed by Julie Taymor, After starring opposite Pablo Schreiber, and Man on a Ledge with Sam Worthington. Mandy can also be heard as the voice of Mei in Disney’s Mulan 2, and as the voice of Mother Rose on the Disney Plus and Disney Jr. series Alice’s Wonderland Bakery.

A frequent concert soloist, Mandy has performed with symphony orchestras around the world. Highlights include: Carnegie Hall with The New York Pops, Boston Pops, Philly Pops, The National Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony, and Atlanta Pops to name a few.

She released her debut album FEARLESS, as a Warner Music East/West artist.

Mandy is also an accomplished author who recently published her Young Adult series, FEARLESS, with Simon and Schuster. Mandy is deeply committed to advocating for underserved communities and schools. She serves on the boards of BCRF (Breast Cancer Research Foundation) and BCEFA (Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS), where she actively promotes awareness and fundraising efforts. Her dedication to giving back is evident in her fearless work for these organizations. In her quest to create positive change, Mandy is the proud founder of #FearlessSquad, a social media movement for inclusiveness and positivity.

Trey Buie is a senior in the Musical Theatre program at Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama. A native of Rock Hill, South Carolina, Trey attended the South Carolina Governor’s School for the Arts & Humanities before continuing his training at CMU. Upcoming performances include Jagged Little Pill (Phoenix) and Good Bones (Earl) at Carnegie Mellon. Favorite credits include MKE MVP at Milwaukee Repertory Theater (dir. Kyle Haden) and In the Red and Brown Water at CMU (dir. Taylor Reynolds). Trey is thrilled to perform with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra and join Mandy on this program! 

Instagram: @trey_buu