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Photo from 2016 John Jay Awards Dinner

2019 John Jay Awards Dinner

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

Composer/Arranger/Orchestrator
2019 John Jay Award Honoree


Tom Kitt

Tom Kitt CC’96 is a composer/arranger/orchestrator/music supervisor. He received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama, as well as Tony Awards for Best Score and Best Orchestrations, for Next to Normal, which also received the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding New Score.

Kitt is the composer of the Tony-nominated If/Then, as well as High Fidelity; Bring It On; The Musical (co-composer with Lin-Manuel Miranda); Freaky Friday; Dave; The Winter’s Tale; All’s Well That Ends Well; Cymbeline; From Up Here; The Madrid; Orphans; The Retributionists; and As You Like It.

As an arranger/orchestrator/music supervisor, credits include SpongeBob Squarepants; the Tony-nominated The Musical; Head Over Heels; American Idiot; Jagged Little Pill; Grease Live!; and Rise. Kitt won an Emmy as co-writer (with Miranda) for the 2013 Tony Award opening number, “Bigger.” As an arranger/orchestrator/musical director/conductor, credits include the Pitch Perfect films; 2Cellos Featuring Lang Lang (Live and Let Die); and The Kennedy Center Honors.

Kitt was a member of the Kingsmen and collaborated with Brian Yorkey ’93 to write the scores for the 100th and 102nd Varsity Shows. The Varsity Show awarded Kitt the 2008 I.A.L Diamond Award for Excellence in the Arts. He received an Alumni Medal of Excellence at Commencement 2012. Kitt and his wife, Rita Pietropinto Kitt ’93, SOA’96, received the Community Impact Award for Outstanding Community Service in 2018. They live in New York City and have three children.

Back to the 2019 John Jay Awards Dinner

Photo from 2016 John Jay Awards Dinner

2019 John Jay Awards Dinner

The annual John Jay Awards Dinner honors five accomplished Columbia College alumni for distinguished professional achievements and raises funds for the John Jay National Scholars Program.

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