Creators and Performers

ABIGAIL AND SHAUN BENGSON are a married composing and performing duo raising two children in NYC and Vermont. They believe grief and joy are the same thing. They are interested in anything that gets us all free. The Bengsons made their Broadway debut in All In: Comedy About Love. They wrote and performed in The Keep Going Songs (LCT3, Obie Award; Actors Theatre of Louisville), Sovereignty Hymns (La Jolla Playhouse), Oh Courage (The Joyce, international tour), My Joy Is Heavy (Arena Stage), Hundred Days (La Jolla Playhouse, New York Theatre Workshop, US Tour), The Lucky Ones (Ars Nova), Where The Mountain Meets The Sea (ATL’s Humana Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club), Anything That Gives Off Light (Edinburgh Theatre Festival, US tour), Hurricane Diane (Two River, NYTW), You’ll Still Call Me By Name (New York Live Arts, Jacob’s Pillow), Sundown Yellow Moon (WP Theater) and Iphigenia In Aulis (Classic Stage Company). They were recognized with a 2024 Obie Award for Sustained Achievement in Performance and have received the Jonathan Larson and Richard Rodgers Awards, as well as nominations for the Drama Desk, Drama League, and Lucille Lortel Awards. Proud to be NYTW Usual Suspects.

Trumpet / Voice

Aaron Bahr is an award winning trumpeter, composer, arranger, author, and educator based in New York City.  In 2024 he performed in the successful run as the trumpet player for the Tony Award Winning Broadway Musical “Illinoise” at the St. James Theater.  He is the published author of “Contemporary Trumpet Techniques” (BiM Publishing, 2023), a book of trumpet studies and etudes exploring advanced and innovative uses of the trumpet.  Bahr also has two albums out as a bandleader featuring his original composition and arrangements, Places, Real and Imagined (2021) and Prologue (2012).

Drums / SPD / Voice

Equally accomplished in drum set and orchestral percussion, Ashley Baier is a fixture in New York’s theater and pop music scenes. Baier has performed on Broadway with Six, Suffs and The Lightning Thief, off-broadway in Little Shop of Horrors and Between the Lines, at La Jolla Playhouse with Hundred Days, and toured nationally for five seasons with How the Grinch Stole Christmas. A proponent of new musical theater, she originated the drum book for Interstate, MISS STEP, Hound Dog, and American Morning. Baier is a member of Brass Queens, an all-female group with a signature style that sits at the intersection of the Big Apple and the Big Easy. A core value of the band is to play for as many audiences as possible to increase the visibility of female musicians in brass bands. The band plays over 100 shows a year at home and on tour, at venues such as The Capitol Theater, Blue Note, and Brooklyn Bowl, and at the Telluride, Ottawa, Exit Zero, and Earshot Jazz Festivals. As a drummer, Baier has performed with David Byrne, PitchBlak Brass Band, Pharoahe Monch, John Hodgman, The Bengsons, and Kermit the Frog. As an orchestral percussionist, she has appeared at renowned venues including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and the Kennedy Center. Baier’s discography includes over 30 recordings with a full spectrum of pop, rock, and jazz artists as well as many cast recordings. Baier has a BM from the University of Maryland and a MM from Mannes College of Music | The New School. In 2017, Cumberland, MD’s Allegany High School—her alma mater—dedicated an award in her name: the Ashley Baier Award In Percussion Excellence is given to a graduating senior who demonstrates outstanding leadership and dedication to the highest level of musical performance. www.ashleybaier.com

Guitar / Bass / Voice

Noga Cabo (they/she) is a twenty-four year-old singer-songwriter, composer, and music director. Noga is an accomplished performing and recording artist, having released their debut solo EP Lady Sun in July 2023, followed by a live EP as well as a full-length album of re-imagined covers paying homage to artists of the ’60s & ’70s (Heroes In the Seaweed, The Audiophile Society). They were named a 2024 Found Sound Nation OneBeat Fellow and participated in a collaborative residency(Avaloch Farm Music Institute) and tour alongside 24 internationally renowned musicians. Collaborations include The Cabo Project, playing bass in folk-musician Lila Blue’s band, performing in and music directing Blue’s musical SEE/UNSEE which has been picked up for development and a 2027 production at HERE Arts Center, Jo Lampert’s Constant Craving at Joe’s Pub, and Dante Green’s musical An Incomplete List… as part of the inaugural PRISM fest at Judson Memorial Church. They are currently a sub-guitarist for Hadestown on Broadway and will be releasing an EP with their newly formed trio oompapa in 2026. You can find them on IG @noga.cabo and at their website nogacabo.com.

Trombone / Tuba / Voice

Reginald Chapman is a New York–based low-brass multi-instrumentalist, composer, and actor-musician. NYTW debut. He is honored to join My Joy Is Heavy at New York Theatre Workshop, where his work at the intersection of music and performance feels especially at home. Onstage, Reginald has appeared on Broadway in Cabaret and Some Like It Hot, as well as in Seat of Our Pants at The Public Theater (limited run). His career moves fluidly across theatrical, popular (Miley Cyrus), and experimental spaces, with performance credits spanning indie rock, brass band traditions, and collaborative contemporary music projects.As a composer and recording artist, Reginald has released the critically acclaimed albums Prototype (2018) and Accretion (2023, Fresh Selects), earning placement on leading editorial playlists including Spotify’s State of Jazz and recognition for their genre-blurring approach. His work as a composer and producer has also been featured on FOX’s Empire and the GRAMMY Award–winning Audubon Society box set For the Birds. Dr. Reginald Chapman, Jr. holds advanced degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and studied with trombonist Jim Pugh. He performs on a custom double valved tenor trombone developed with Mike Corrigan ant BAC and is grateful to make his NYTW debut with this production.

Keyboard / Accordion / Voice

MATT DEITCHMAN is a NYC-based composer, music director, orchestrator/arranger, multi-instrumentalist, and actor, who has worked on and off Broadway, regionally, and internationally. He was a member of the music departments of both SWEPT AWAY and THE HEART OF ROCK & ROLL and is a frequent orchestral sub on/off Broadway (select shows include: CHESS, REDWOOD, PARADE, A STRANGE LOOP, ALMOST FAMOUS). Off-Broadway he was the music director and conductor of TREVOR, which is also available to stream on Disney+. Matt is the music director of the Broadway-bound musical BEGIN AGAIN, based on the John Carney film and featuring the music of the band Train.

Matt is the Orchestrator/Arranger/Track Producer for two new full-scale theatrical concerts currently running on board Norwegian Cruise Line ships: BRING BACK THE 90S and ROCK N’ ROLL REMIX. As a composer/arranger, Matt has scored various media including live theater, short films, podcasts, & web series. With co-writer Jed Feder Matt co-created the radio play podcast musical for all ages YELLOWFIN GROUPER, P.I.

As a former (and proud) Chicagoan, Matt’s work continues to be featured on stages in the Chicagoland area. This past season Matt created bespoke orchestrations for WHITE CHRISTMAS at the Paramount Theatre, supervised a new production of MILLION DOLLAR QUARTET CHRISTMAS at the Marriott Theatre, and was the music supervisor of the 2025 Jeff Award winning production of NATASHA, PIERRE, AND THE GREAT COMET OF 1812 at Writers Theatre.

Add’l select regional: Chicago Shakespeare Theatre, Arena Stage, Shakespeare Theatre Company (DC), Asolo Repertory Theatre, South Coast Repertory, Marriott Theatre, Writers Theatre, Paramount Theater, American Stage Theatre, Ogunquit Playhouse, and many more.

For more: Instagram: @mattydeitch / mattdeitchman.com

Tenor Sax / Baritone Sax / Flute / Clarinet / Voice

Nicole DeMaio is a composer, woodwind specialist, and music educator born in Bogotá, Colombia and based in the New York City area. As a woodwind doubler, she performs on flute, clarinet, saxophone, oboe, bassoon, and an array of world flutes. Nicole has held chairs on several Off-Broadway productions including 3penny Opera, starring George Abud and Katrina Lenk, Show/Boat: A River, Welcome to the Big Dipper, and GOOD SHOWBIZ. She is an active Broadway substitute musician and has played on productions including Gypsy, Some Like It Hot, Aladdin, Big Gay Jamboree, 1776, Kimberly Akimbo, and A Strange Loop, among others. Nicole held the Reed 2 chair of the An American in Paris national tour, and served as a substitute on the national tour of Fiddler on the Roof. Beyond the pit, she has appeared at Lincoln Center with Ariana DeBose in Authenticity, performed in Tony Award nominee L Morgan Lee’s solo show at MCC Theater, and collaborated live with performers including Gloria Gaynor, Brian d’Arcy James, Bruce Springsteen, Robin De Jesús, Yandel, Jordan Fisher, Jessica Vosk, Lea Michele, and Darren Criss, among others. Nicole is a member of The Broadway Sinfonietta, an all-women, majority women-of-color orchestra. With the ensemble, she has performed The Barbie Movie: Live in Concert at the Hollywood Bowl and the Royal Albert Hall, Ratatouille: The TikTok Musical, the Cowboy Bebop 25th Anniversary Concert, Carnegie Hall Presents, Dylan Mulvaney’s 365 Days of Girlhood: LIVE from the Rainbow Room, and Laura Bell Bundy’s Women of Tomorrow concert. Nicole is the Director of Black Sheep Contemporary Ensemble, a group focused on commissioning and performing new music, interdisciplinary collaboration. Her work as a composer has earned awards from Vox Novus and the Pictures Composition Contest, and she has been commissioned by The Rivers School Conservatory, Classical Music Indy, Infrasound, and Yale School of Music.