Deborah D. Lynch, Staff Accompanist
Deborah D. Lynch (Staff Accompanist/Musical Theater Specialist) was active in Richmond, VA performing arts from 1981 until her move to Tampa in May 2011. As a music director, accompanist, vocal coach and performer, she worked with Barksdale Theatre, Dogwood Dell, HATTheatre, Henrico Theater Company, Richmond Triangle Players, St. John’s Players, Swift Creek Mill Theater Company, The Theatre Company at Ft. Lee, Theatre IV and TheatreVirginia.
Favorite roles include The Leading Player in Pippin; Rita in Cowgirls with Theatre IV (“Best Musical” - Richmond Phoebe Awards); Baroness Elberfeld/Nun in The Sound of Music (“Best Musical” - Richmond Theatre Critics Circle awards); Topeka Abotelli in Swing Time Canteen with Swift Creek Mill Theatre Co., and Lillian/Harriett in A Wonderful Life with TheatreVirginia. Dee served on the Voice Faculties of The School of the Performing Arts in the Richmond Community (SPARC) and Swift Creek Mill Summer Theatre Camp, and provided master class instruction for, and adjudicated, Governor’s School programs on musical theater.
She graduated summa cum laude from Stockton State College with an interdisciplinary Bachelor of Arts in Theatre, Modern Dance and Voice; her vocal training then continued at Virginia Commonwealth University. She holds an M.A. in Transpersonal Studies from Atlantic University. Dee has taught high school chorus, was a soloist for The Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in their masterworks concerts with the Richmond Symphony, and has assisted with District Chorus festivals. Her music direction credits include Theatre IV's Honk!, Barksdale Theatre’s The Full Monty, Richmond Triangle Players’ Scrooge in Rouge, and The Theatre Co. at Fort Lee’s The Pajama Game.
Deborah knows the influence that a performing arts program can have on a young person’s life. At age 14 she attended a 6-week summer dance program for teens at Bennett College, co-sponsored by N.Y.U. Her ballet mistress was Janis Menken and the dance accompanist was her husband Alan Menken, now famous for his songwriting for Disney films. Deborah would leave dance class, find a room with a piano then play by ear the original compositions that she’d heard Alan play. (She also boasts having started the first 'Alan Menken Fan Club' and still has the t-shirt she drew on with black marker: a pair of glasses and a mustache.) She wanted to compose, play piano, perform, and inspire others the way Alan and Janis inspired her. Now years later, she feels very privileged to be working at Patel Conservatory, in a position to pass on the joy of the performing arts to young people.