© 2012-2019 Jean Browne

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Music is a language with specific rules for notation. Before 1989, music preparation was done by hand and required tremendous patience and skill.

Broadway conductor and mentor, Jack Lee, still refers to Jean as the "Cut and Paste Queen" since most of the 15 shows they worked on together required extensive edits that Jean had to execute quickly and accurately, usually staying up all night to make it happen. That peaked her interest in the field of music engraving. [See Jack Lee]

When she joined the Broadway bound Peter Pan, there were numerous changes continuously made to the show. While performing at the Kennedy Center in DC, Jules Styne wrote a new song that needed to be put into the show quickly. Jean burned the midnight oil writing out the parts for the song for each instrument in the orchestra. Once the show started previews on Broadway, the changes were massive. Jean notated the vocal part for every pirate and indian. Those vocal parts are still used today.

Jean was one of the first professional copyists to convert to computer engraving and has used Finale software to since 1989. She is a certified music copyist who has been the supervising copyist for many projects, including the first orchestrated production of The Fantasticks (working directly with composer Harvey Schmidt) and the 1987 Premiere of Robert DeGaetano's Piano Concerto No. 1.

Music Copyist

In 1990, when Finale was in it's infancy, Jean was hired to create all the musical examples for the book The Harmony of Bills Evans, written by Jack Reilly and published by Hal Leonard.