Julia Hisoo Riew

Biography

Julia Riew is a Korean-American musical theater composer-lyricist and librettist. Born and raised in St. Louis, Missouri, Julia grew up playing the violin, singing along to Broadway soundtracks in the family car, and watching countless Disney movies.

Julia was the inaugural recipient of the Musicians United for Social Equity (MUSE) Linda Twine Scholarship (2021) as well as a member of the first Maestra Music Mentorship Program (2020-21). Her original work has been featured at the American Repertory Theater, Harvard University’s Farkas Hall and Agassiz Theater, The UNC-Greensboro School of Theater, Nora Theater Company at Central Square Theater, The Harvard Art Lab, University of Missouri, The Community Music School of Webster University, and John Burroughs High School.

Some of Julia’s recent works include Jack and the Beanstalk: A Musical Adventure, which was commissioned for the American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.)’s 2020 Family Musical, Thumbelina: A Little Musical (The A.R.T. 2019 Family Musical), and The East Side: A New Musical, which is currently being developed under a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) at Nora Theater Company in Central Square.

At Harvard, she co-founded the Harvard College Asian Student Arts Project (ASAP), a club created to provide the resources and community for Asian student artists, and was the recipient of the 2020 Radcliffe Doris Cohen Levi Musical Theater Prize, as well as a John Harvard Scholar.

When she’s not attending class or writing musicals, Julia enjoys pop songwriting, reading science fiction, doing puzzles, and listening to musical theater soundtracks.