Spotlight: Nicholas N. Commins ’09

Even as a high school student, Nicholas N. Commins ’09 marveled at the idea of the Freshman Musical at Harvard.

“I saw the website back in late junior year or early senior year of high school,” says Commins. “I was researching musical theater at different schools. It is definitely one of a kind and that was an incentive for me to come here. [The musical] sort of stayed in the back of my head because it was Harvard and I didn’t think I would get in.”

Now, two years later, Nick is the composer and lyricist for the Freshman Musical, “On the Heir.”

No stranger to the world of theater, Commins acted in nearly 22 musicals while in high school. “I did a musical every semester. I was always acting,” he says. A native of San Francisco, Nick was a committed member of the Young People’s Teen Musical Theater Company.

“[The company] would do three musicals a year and it was totally free. That really exposed me to musical theater,” he explains.

Despite his acting experience, Nick had never composed a score for a production. “I think a lot of exposure to the type of score you’re trying to write is the most key,” he says. “A lot of training helps, too. Knowing how to read sheet music makes composition easier, as does a solid knowledge of music theory.”

Nick got the technical training he needed in “Music 4, Introduction to Composition” this past fall, but his true inspiration came from his love of musical theater, which he says comprises “90 percent of the music on my computer.”

In writing the score, Commins took an unusual approach. “Most people choose to start with music,” he said, but he chose to write his lyrics first. In each song, Commins tried to “find the conflict and what is trying to be resolved by singing.”

He adds, “I find a ‘bicycle’ or ‘vehicle’ to get the message across so you’re not just spewing out emotions constantly. That way, you can relate them to something concrete.” Though new to the role of lyricist, Nick confesses to “abusing alliteration and rhyme in everyday speech” and describes the job of writing lyrics as “almost therapeutic.”

The creative process of writing a score and lyrics may have been new to Commins, but the feeling of community was just what he was looking for in Harvard’s musical theater scene, which he first entered as part of the Harvard-Radclife Dramatic Club (HRDC) production “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” this fall.

“There’s something for everyone here, from the juggler to the clarinetist to the swing dancer,” he said. “Also, it’s more intense [than in high school], but when you are with people for two weeks every night from 6 p.m. to 12 a.m. you really get to know people.”

Aside from his role in the production of “On the Heir,” Nick participated in this semester’s Lowell House Opera, “The Threepenny Opera.”

Though his commitment to musical theater has been strong enough to preclude involvement in other extracurriculars, he claims that he’s not considering a concentration in music, trying to decide instead between mathematics and psychology. “I’d probably just keep [musical theater] as a hobby because it is incredibly competitive,” he says.

But he follows up with a caveat that has no doubt been on the minds of many Harvard students lately. “If the Music department offers a secondary concentration anytime soon, I’d definitely consider that.”