In this June 2025 photo, provided by Lakeridge High School senior Elaina Stuppler, she's pictured as part of the National Endowment for the Arts Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge.
Courtesy Elaina Stuppler
Lakeridge High School senior Elaina Stuppler is no stranger to the spotlight. She performs in the Portland Youth Philharmonic, playing trombone — but she also plays tuba, piano and composes music as well. She’s regularly featured on All Classical Radio as a reporter and Artist in Residence. But the last few months have been a veritable cavalcade of honors and opportunities. Stuppler won the Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge. Her winning composition, about the life of Maria Anna Mozart, was performed by Broadway musicians and singers in New York this summer.
She was just one of five students in the U.S. chosen by the Grammy Museum for its summer screen scoring program in LA. She is also a winner of the prestigious YoungArts Award with Distinction, Stuppler joins us to share some of her compositions, and tell us about what these honors mean to her and what opportunities they may open up for her future.
Note: The following transcript was transcribed digitally and validated for accuracy, readability and formatting by an OPB volunteer.
Dave Miller: This is Think Out Loud on OPB. I’m Dave Miller. Elaina Stuppler, who is about to start her senior year at Lakeridge High School, is no stranger to the spotlight. She is a multi-instrumentalist who plays trombone in the Portland Youth Philharmonic. She is regularly featured on All Classical Radio as a reporter and an artist in residence. She is also a composer.
We talked to Elaina last year when one of her compositions was performed by the Metropolitan Youth Symphony. She has been very busy since then, winning spots in programs around the country, including the Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge in New York and the Grammy Museum’s summer screen scoring program in Los Angeles. She joins us now to talk about all this. Elaina, welcome back.
Elaina Stuppler: Thank you so much for having me.
Miller: I want to start with the workshop you did in New York City. What were you doing at the Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge?
Stuppler: In New York, we got to hear our songs that we wrote for the program come to life by Broadway musicians and performers. It was such an amazing opportunity to hear it be interpreted by them and there was an orchestrator that had it all come together. They’re such a generous organization, and it really sparked my love and solidified my love of musical theater and writing for it.
Miller: What was the prompt? What was the project that you had to write for?
Stuppler: When we were submitting, first we submitted a song for musical theater. Most of the winners that weekend, their piece that they brought in was for a larger musical. We submitted it to the first draft and then we got feedback, and we did revisions for the second draft. And from that, we went to New York with our pieces.
Miller: What was yours about?
Stuppler: Mine was about the life of Maria Anna Mozart, Mozart’s sister, who was just as talented as him, but she just doesn’t receive the spotlight that he did. And I just think it’s so important to share her story because, due to the circumstances at the time, it was just seen as unseemly for a woman to compose. And I think it’s really important to share her story.
Miller: Let’s have a listen to one of the songs that you wrote. We’re going to hear “Second Chances.” Is anything you want us to listen for as we listen to part of this?
Stuppler: I started off in a more classical realm. And then right after the piano intro, it comes into a bit more of a groove, like funky bass rhythm.
Miller: All right, let’s have a listen.
[“Second Chances” by Elaina Stuppler playing: spoken word and singing with piano accompaniment]
Singer: Dear little brother Wolfie,
It was obvious we drifted, you more than me. Our harmony fades so silently.
Cause you’re our family’s little prodigy.
But how could you see?
The years would pass and you’d have fame and fortune.
I wanted to be more than just a wife in this town.
Don’t you remember, right back where we started,
travelling the world until I couldn’t come along?
Oh dear brother, I’m so jealous. You’re living my dream.
I’m tied in a corset, stuck at home and drinking tea.
I’m left to accept this as my mode de vie.
And the years would pass and you’d have fame and fortune.
I wanted to be more than just a wife in this town …
[Music fades]
Miller: That’s “Second Chances,” written by my guest Elaina Stuppler. What was it like for you to be hanging out with Broadway musicians?
Stuppler: It was so inspiring. I could really tell that they all really loved what they were doing and enjoyed their craft. And it just really solidified how much I’m excited to go into writing more and continue to write my musical about Marie Anna Mozart.
Miller: Am I right that as part of this time you spent in New York that you saw some full shows on Broadway?
Stuppler: Yes, we did. We saw “Aladdin,” which was such an amazing production. After, some of the actors and musicians came out and they talked about their experience. We also saw some shows in the works, we saw the “Oscar Micheaux Project,” and it was really interesting to see the contrast of a show going through production and then a show that was finalized.
Miller: What’s it like for you now to go to a show? I’m curious what you’re listening for, I guess. If non-musicians, non-composers go to a show, there’s a lot, there’s a spectacle, it’s exciting and fun. But what are you paying attention to now, at this point in your early career?
Stuppler: I love to listen and just look for everything. What I love about musical theater is there’s so many aspects of it. I mean, there’s the song, there’s the dance. I think, as a musician and composer, my ear is immediately drawn to the music and the harmonic structure of it. But really just everything. I love taking it in all at once.
Miller: So that was New York. You also had a week in Los Angeles for the Grammy Museum’s summer screen scoring program – which is hard to say. [Laughs] What did that entail?
Stuppler: Through that program, I was composing from about 9 to 6 every day for cartoons, film, TV shows. We had different guest speakers come in to talk about the industry. I had no idea there were so many jobs for screen scoring, and seeing it all come together like the editor, the composer, the orchestrator. There’s even something called the booth reader. There’s just so many pieces that come together.
Miller: What does the booth reader do?
Stuppler: The booth reader is the person that sits next to the composer and communicates to the orchestra or the musicians while they’re having a reading.
Miller: So you were composing in real time and there was an orchestra there who was ready to play what you were writing?
Stuppler: Not really. We were composing on a computer and inputting the sounds from a small piano onto the computer. And at the end of the week, we had a string trio record some of our music for strings. And we would take that audio and insert it back into the track. It’s called sweetening, it makes it sound like it’s a live orchestra.
Miller: You gave us a couple of tracks to listen to. One of them is “Drama Sequence.” So how did this come to be?
Stuppler: They gave us a scene from a movie, and we had to time the different parts and pair it with different emotions. So in the beginning it’s intense because it’s a rescue scene, and there were some moments where there was a mother comforting her daughter, so I added a little cello solo to make it more emotional. So just really pairing the scenes with the times and the emotion.
Miller: So looking at the time code and going second by second to say is this the right moment for this music cue? Is this when the cello should swell or whatever? Was that fun?
Stuppler: Yes. It was so much fun. I loved it so much.
Miller: Let’s have a listen to your drama sequence from this movie score.
[“Drama Sequence” move score by Elaina Stuppler plays]
Miller: You’ve, at this point, composed for a really wide variety of kinds of ensembles and different musical styles as well. Even in this one piece there’s a mixture of styles that we’ve just heard, sort of Middle Eastern feel and dramatic drums. You’ve done jazz as well. What kind of music excites you the most right now in terms of making it?
Stuppler: I really love bridging all different styles together when I compose music. That’s what keeps it exciting for me, bringing in the new influences. Right now I’m really enjoying a lot of jazz. I’ve been listening to Blue Mitchell’s album “The Thing to Do.” I just came back from a University of Oregon jazz camp and we played one of his songs, and it was just so inspiring. I loved the different rhythmic and harmonic aspects of it.
Miller: Well, Elaina Stuppler, it’s always a pleasure talking to you. Congratulations. We are going to go out with one more of your songs. It’s called “Opener.” This one does show your jazz chops. Thanks so much for coming in again.
Stuppler: Thank you so much for having me. It was lovely speaking with you.
Miller: That is Elaina Stuppler. She’s about to start her senior year at Lakeridge High School.
[“Opener” by Elaina Stuppler playing]
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