Christie Chiles Twillie

Biography

Christie’s Bachelor and Masters studies were in Piano Performance at West Virginia University from which she also holds a minor in Dance. Prior to working in musical theatre she performed as a concert pianist, orchestra pianist and chamber musician and danced in semi-professional dance companies. For over 20 years she has trained pianists to attend conservatory, judged competitions and instructed piano master classes.

Currently Christie works full time as Music Director, Piano Conductor, Composer, Sound Designer and Orchestrator-Arranger. She is fluent in Logic, MainStage, Ableton, Finale, Sibelius. Her strong sight reading skills have also made her a highly sought after audition and rehearsal accompanist. Her music directing/piano conductor credits include over 40 musicals.

Upcoming: Dreamgirls (Goodspeed); Caroline or Change (McCarter Center), The Wiz (Children's Theatre of Madison); A Year with Frog and Toad (Chicago Children's Theatre)

Regional Musical Direction credits: Hair (Asolo); Five Guys Named Moe, Newsies, The Gospel at Colonus and Raisin (Skylight); Indecent (Milwaukee Chamber) the Chicago premier of  Minnie’s Boys (Porchlight), Dreamgirls (Paramount Aurora), Jelly's Last Jam (Cape Fear Regional Theatre); and MD Sub for productions of The Fish Whisperer and Cheeseheads (Northern Sky).

Sound Design and compositional credits include: Clyde's (Theatre Works Hartford); Fireflies (Northlight); Carmella Full of Wishes (Chicago Children's Theatre; First Stage Milwaukee; Seattle Children's Theatre) A Raisin in the Sun (Invictus); America 2.0 (Definition); The Niceties (Forward), The Mountain Top (American Players); We Are Continuous, and Vietgone (GEVA), Home, Stew, Kill Move Paradise, Black Butterflies, Pretty Fires and The Way She Spoke (Milwaukee Chamber) and Yellowman (Fleetwood Jourdain).

Christie’s film scores can be heard in Alone, The Pandemic Trilogy, and in The Clearing, a short film selected for the 2021 Milwaukee Film Festival.

Christie was awarded the Footlights Best Musical Direction Award for a Professional Production (Five Guys Named Moe), and a Rachel Rockwell Fierce Women Behind The Table, award for Music Direction by Porchlight Music Theatre. She earned a BTAA nomination for Best Music Direction - Original Score (Yellowman) and was a Chicago Broadway World Finalist for Best Music Direction, (Big Fish).

Christie is member of American Federation of Musicians (10-208); Theatre Musicians Association; MUSE - Musicians United for Social Equity, and is a MAESTRA Board Member. She also served two terms as President of the Chicago Area Music Teachers Association her local association for MTNA.