My experience working with Justin Hill on my musical 'Open Heart' was thrilling. Justin managed to do the unthinkable: he orchestrated and conducted the show the way I wanted to hear it. As a composer, Justin made me forget the past experiences with very high profile orchestrators in New York who just plowed through my work and instead, Justin nurtured and enhanced every moment, every cue, every song and he even nurtured intervals that I fight for in my sleep. I can't wait for my next piece to be finished so that I can come to Justin and bypass the hoity-toity guys and go straight to the talent: Justin Hill.

Justin was our conductor and orchestral arranger for the star-studded SIMPLY SONDHEIM concert celebrating the opening of the new Stephen Sondheim Center for the Performing Arts in Iowa.  Besides his incredible musicality,intelligence, and talent, Justin’s maturity and ability to gracefully handle all the stress that comes with such an enormous event was truly inspirational.  He treated everyone with the utmost respect from Len Carious and Richard Kind to his 18-piece orchestra to the young performers in the children’s chorus.  I was in shock to find out afterwards that he was still in his twenties as his presence and demeanor lead me to believe he was at least two decades older.  I have had the pleasure of working with many talented (and even iconic) musicians in my career, and I absolutely consider Justin to be at the same level and in the same category.  I continue to rely on Justin’s musical savvy and advice, and he is always first on my list when people are looking for a top-notch musical director, conductor and arranger.  He is a brilliant young talent and has a blazingly bright career ahead of him. I wish fervently that we work together again soon and often, for years to come.

Justin not only rendered superb orchestrations for my voice-piano score, he added multiple original, relevant, and dynamic music to support choreography.  He has a fine ear, a bent to perfection, and conducted with Broadway-level professionalism.

Apart from being an incredibly gifted musician and singer, Justin is also a  wonderful collaborator, and an asset to any production that looks for insight, humor, cogent ideas, and sheer talent.  In a word, I would work with him again in a heartbeat, and I look forward to watching where his gifts will lead him.

I have had the pleasure of working with Justin Hill on 3 musicals at the Sondheim Center.  As a choreographer, I love to infuse older shows with fresh dance music and arrangements. With new works, it is essential to examine ways to open songs up to integrate dance in the best possible way. Sometimes when working with a regional theatre musical director these requests are not always a possibility. Justin actually does have the skills to look at music in this way, and has been able to accommodate my needs in both types of circumstance.  Beyond that, Justin’s knowledge of the musical theatre genre has enabled him to collaborate with me in building a number, offer his own ideas on musical stylings, and create Broadway quality dance arrangements.  Even with a limited quantity of pieces in the orchestra, Justin has created orchestrations that sound full and convey the exact feelings of what I need to be communicated within a song on stage.  I look forward to working with Justin again on future productions.

When I, a singer,recently needed orchestral accompaniments to some Sondheim songs, I found that they were very hard to come by.  I heard about Justin Hill through friends, contacted him and commissioned him to orchestrate them.  He not only did them with competence, but executed my ideas about bridges and medleys with artistry.  He works quickly and accurately and the orchestrations were easily legible for the musicians and conductor.  I highly recommend him and would use him again without reservation.

The writer/musical director relationship is a delicate one. In it, “harmony” must be more than a musical term. My collaboration with Justin Hill was rewarding because not only was he faithful to my compositional intentions, he enhanced them. He has a keen sense of song structure, nuance and possesses a rare sensitivity to where the work of the composer ends and his begins. I look forward to when our working together has a reason to “reprise”.