Katie Horner and Emily Boyd Dahab met in the esteemed BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. Within BMI, they have become known as a team that centers character and creates beautiful, specific, and inventive songs which are story-driven and emotion-led.

As a composer, Katie prioritizes two things: memorable melodies and story-specific music. She believes that a catchy and digestible melody is the key to holding an audience’s attention because it allows them to hear, process, and remember information being delivered. Further, a memorable melody helps audiences enjoy themselves! Katie also believes that the best musicals communicate time, place, character, and circumstances just through their music. She strives to achieve all of these things in her work. Katie is able to orchestrate and record her own demos, with orchestration training from Boyer School of Music at Temple University; she also is a professional actor and singer and can provide her own recordings with the seven instruments she plays.

As a book writer and lyricist, Emily believes that story and character should be at the heart of all musical theatre writing. Lyrics should be satisfying to hear and perfectly rhymed, of course, but beautiful songs or clever lyrics aren’t doing their job if they’re not in service to a compelling story. Emily has extensive experience in story analysis from her Columbia MFA in Dramaturgy and an understanding of character derived from her degree in classical acting from LAMDA. She brings this training to bear on her writing: Emily was recognized as a Semi-Finalist for the O’Neill Playwriting Conference for her original play, “Safe as Houses.”