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AJ Yi ’25-’26 is currently working on the American Repertory Theater’s upcoming production of “Wonder” as a music assistant. Based on the book by R.J. Palacio, the show is set for a world premiere on Dec. 9. This will be the ultimate project in an undergraduate career defined by musical theater. Yi’s most recent projects include music directing the Harvard-Radcliffe Dramatic Club’s productions of “Songs For A New World” and “Merrily We Roll Along,” with the latter marking the 16th show they were involved in as a Harvard student.

Growing up in Texas, Yi was not a musical theater enthusiast at all. In fact, they received classical piano training and had little to no contact with their high school’s theater program. Although Yi and their classmates had a communal love for “Hamilton,” they had no idea what being involved in a musical was like.

“I remember that in middle school, I had the world’s biggest Hamilton phase ever. I was in orchestra and the entirety of the orchestra collectively had a Hamilton phase, which feels like a ‘canon event’ in a lot of cases. But I literally didn't have any conception of what Broadway was. I just knew about Hamilton specifically, and I had all the songs and all the lyrics memorized,” said Yi.

When Yi arrived at Harvard, they joined the Din & Tonics a capella group, where they met fellow music director and composer Ian Chan ’23. At that point a junior, Chan introduced Yi to Harvard’s theater community. In the spring of their freshman year, Yi served as assistant music director on productions of “Into the Woods” as well as “The More You Know,” an original musical with music by Chan. They described their first time working on a musical as a “lightning in the bottle” moment. During their sophomore year, Yi assistant music directed the original production “OUT: An Asian American Musical,” with Chan again behind the music. Upon witnessing the audience “viscerally react and cry,” Yi discovered the emotional impact of musical theater and decided they wanted to pursue it professionally. They were also fascinated by how much behind-the-scenes effort goes into setting up a production.

“On ‘Out,’ I was exposed to some of the tools of music assisting, like transcribing things from voice memos, formatting music that’s being printed for the first time and it sounds so nerdy and niche, but it just scratched this itch in my head to do all the preparation work for something that no one had any concept of, and then watch it come to life three months later,” said Yi.

Yi expressed initial concerns about not growing up as a stereotypical “theater kid.” Over time, though, that concern faded and they realized how their strong background in classical music as well as other varied interests became useful in musical theater productions.

“I do really strongly believe now that all of the things that you work on in related fields, or even in something totally not music related at all, I think, transfer over to being a good theater maker. I think some of the most important skills that I learned are ways of communicating with people and being a generally good person and collaborating with friends and figuring out how to set those working relationships,” said Yi.

As a music director, Yi is responsible for teaching the cast their music and helping them figure out how to best express themselves and tell a story. For example, Yi focused on the vocal team in “Merrily We Roll Along” and held one-on-one rehearsals with singers to work through the “nitty-gritty” details of each number. They also underlined the importance of collaboration and paying attention to different departments, such as sound and choreography.

The element of collaboration and building strong interpersonal bonds shines through when it comes to Yi’s participation in “Wonder.” Over the summer, they completed a four-week staged workshop for the brand-new musical as an A.R.T. intern. Drawn to the great sense of community, Yi asked to continue being a part of the team this past semester. They now work most closely with composer-lyricists Ian Axel and Chad King, as well as music director Ryan Cantwell.

“Everyone’s just super kind and welcoming, which obviously reflects the show that they’ve created, which is a show about kindness and about accepting people and being welcoming. It’s been a really wholesome environment to get to dip my toes into,” said Yi.

Students in HRDC get to choose which productions they want to work on each semester, granting them more creative freedom but also increasing their level of responsibility. Yi would familiarize themselves with the musical’s storyline and analyze the entire score, picking out difficult sections, as preparation. They do not listen to cast albums very much to avoid getting tied down to a specific interpretation by others.

“As a music director, sitzprobe is really, really gratifying. Sitzprobe is when the band, the pit orchestra and the cast come together and do the entire score for the first time. And it’s just so electric in the room. It’s a moment where everyone hopefully comes out of it feeling really, really excited and pumped for the music. Getting to sit and take it all in is so awesome,” Yi said when asked about the highlights of music directing.

Yi’s job, though rewarding, does not come without its challenges. For instance, the time commitment per show is huge. Yi humorously put it as “living in the Loeb for a month.” Apart from that, music directors often play many additional roles: instructor, conductor, pit musician…In “Songs for a New World,” Yi reawakened the classical pianist within them.

“Music directing is challenging when you’re piano conducting or when you’re working with the pit, too — juggling the very technical side of playing the things correctly, and playing it well and with finesse. ‘Songs for a New World’ was a very big challenge to myself to see whether I could play what is a fairly difficult score to a level that I was satisfied with,” said Yi.

A huge fan of Stephen Sondheim’s musicals, Yi believes that the script and score of “Merrily We Roll Along” work well together — the repeated motifs in the music combined with the show’s reverse chronological order helps bring out the main theme of small decisions shaping life. In addition to Sondheim, Yi is also inspired by artists like Jason Robert Brown and Sara Bareilles.

“I probably have a slight preference in general for things that sound more ‘classical,’ which is larger orchestrations and more acoustic instruments. And also things that get a little fun and funky with it. I really like the influences of 20th century classical music on theater. For example, I’ll talk about Sondheim again, Sondheim has a ton of Stravinsky influences in it,” said Yi.

Yi will be graduating off-cycle this winter. In the near future, they hope to work as a music assistant and remain involved in theater in meaningful ways.

“What draws me to theater as a medium, even though I came from a strictly classical music background, is how collaborative it is and how many pieces to the puzzle it takes to put together the story,” said Yi. “Because of that, the end product is so much more than the sum of its parts and it becomes a whole new thing.”