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Norman Mathews

Goodreads Author

Born

Rockford, Illinois, The United States

Website

https://normanmathewsauthor.com

Genre

Biography, Biography, Biography

Member Since

July 2018

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Norman Mathews is a composer, author of books and articles, librettist, playwright, and gastronome. His work has been performed at the Kennedy Center, on radio, and at theatres and concert venues around the world. A recipient of numerous awards, foundation grants, and commissions. Mathews has composed opera, musical theatre, art songs, chamber music, and choral works, which have been performed by Tony-Award winners and major operatic talent. As a journalist, he has been News Editor of Dance Magazine, Managing Editor of Sylvia Porter’s Personal Finance Magazine, and Editorial Director of Merrill Lynch internal publications. His articles have been published in Common Dreams and the Times of Sicily. His music is published by Graphite Publishin Norman Mathews is a composer, author of books and articles, librettist, playwright, and gastronome. His work has been performed at the Kennedy Center, on radio, and at theatres and concert venues around the world. A recipient of numerous awards, foundation grants, and commissions. Mathews has composed opera, musical theatre, art songs, chamber music, and choral works, which have been performed by Tony-Award winners and major operatic talent. As a journalist, he has been News Editor of Dance Magazine, Managing Editor of Sylvia Porter’s Personal Finance Magazine, and Editorial Director of Merrill Lynch internal publications. His articles have been published in Common Dreams and the Times of Sicily. His music is published by Graphite Publishing.

Personal History

I was born in the wrong town (Rockford, Illinois), the wrong era, and with the wrong name. So what was I to do? With one severely arched eyebrow, my mini-adult self took stock of my uninviting surroundings and imagined a more glamorous future for myself. Though a life in the theatre beckoned, I lacked the self-assurance and discipline to put forth a plan of action. Instead, I floundered. Psychological abuse by a priest left me traumatized and led to absurdly hilarious, yet totally ineffective psychotherapy. A nearly disastrous episode at age twenty engendered a resolve to pull myself together.

Wannabe journalists spend years attaining advanced degrees in hopes of becoming the next Dorothy Parker or Carl Bernstein. I, on the other hand, stumbled unwillingly into the field because as a college dropout I was simply unqualified to do anything else. Ballet classes begun at a late age eventually propelled me into a career as a dancer on Broadway and films, where I worked with Barbra Streisand, Gene Kelly, Dorothy Lamour and Michael Bennett. An untimely injury forced me into a new career path as a pianist and piano teacher, once I earned my master’s degree. A seemingly ridiculous suggestion by my life’s partner to try my hand at composing set me on a whole new adventure. What followed was a career as a composer of serious concert music, opera, and musical theatre, as well as that of a librettist and playwright.

Having once considered a career as a professional chef, I instead turned my love of good food into my avocation. Though I never trained professionally, I’ve worked myself through some of the major cookbooks of my time and experimented with developing recipes all my life. Also, I come from a family of good cooks, my paternal grandmother and grandfather once were restaurant chefs and earned a side living cooking for Italian weddings.

My music can be heard by clicking here: Composer Website.
Once on the site, click on My Store and use the scroll bar to view various works.
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Norman Mathews’s books

Average rating: 4.25 · 4 ratings · 2 reviews · 1 distinct work

The Wrong Side of the Room: A Life in Music Theater (1)

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Norman Mathews's Blog

Why I Wrote My Memoir

I’ve been telling stories about my Sicilian-American family and my career in musical theater all my life. In my delivery, I always attempted to embody the various characters I depicted—specific accents, vocal cadences, facial expression, and gesticulations. Well, I’m Sicilian for God’s sake; we use our hands to tell stories. Can we even talk without our hands? I doubt it. People seemed to enjoy th Read more of this blog post »

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Published on October 01, 2018 20:08

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Norman is Currently Reading

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Animal Dreams

by Barbara Kingsolver

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Aug 21, 2025 09:38AM

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The Year of Magical Thinking

by Joan Didion

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Dec 26, 2019 02:58PM

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The Complete Patrick Melrose Novels

by Edward St. Aubyn

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Oct 28, 2023 11:08AM

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Norman Mathews is currently reading Animal Dreams by Barbara Kingsolver	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
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Norman Mathews made a comment on NRB’s review of The Wrong Side of the Room: A Life in Music Theater (1) " Hope to see you soon, too. Maybe when Eustaquio gets back. "
Aug 10, 2024 09:41AM · see review
Norman Mathews is now following Asher's reviews
Apr 03, 2024 02:24PM · like

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