POPULAR
Joey Contreras is a musical theatre and pop songwriter originally from California. He is internationally known for his first album Love Me, Love Me Not, which featured an all-star lineup of Broadway talent and spawned performances of his music around the world, including the US, Australia, London, South Korea, Germany and Japan. In 2014, his second and more pop-focused album, Young Kind of Love, immediately debuted in the iTunes Pop Charts. Out Magazine labeled the sophomore effort “sexy and catchy,” and branded Joey a “Broadway-pop crossover extraordinaire.” In 2016, Joey wrote the music and lyrics for the Disney Junior animated short, “Kiwi’s First Flight,” featured in the series, “Lights, Camera, Lexi!”
Hailed as one of Playbill’s “Contemporary Musical Theatre Songwriters You Should Know,” Joey is a 2018 Jonathan Larson Grant Finalist, and his musicals with bookwriter/lyricist, Kate Thomas, include All The Kids Are Doing It (Provincetown Playhouse, Tisch, IWU, O’Neill NMTC Finalist), Forget Me Not (The Dare Tactic, dir. Catie Davis) and Elements. Additionally he is working on Heartbreakers in Hell with bookwriter/lyricist Benjamin Halstead. He also has written the music and lyrics for the song-cycle, In Pieces (originally presented at Lincoln Center).
As a strong supporter of arts education, Joey has served as Artist-in-Residence with Broadway Dreams Foundation and has contributed original music and arrangements to Broadway in South Africa. He also regularly teaches masterclasses with The Growing Studio in New York. Joey is an alumnus from the NYU Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program (2010 ASCAP Max Dreyfus Scholarship Recipient) and the 2017 Johnny Mercer Songwriters Project. His music is regularly heard in popular New York concert venues such as 54 Below, Rockwood Music Hall, and Joe’s Pub at the Public Theatre.