Stephen Purdy is an American conductor/pianist and vocal coach for broadway musicals and broadway actors. Before joining Broadway, Purdy worked as a Wall street

Wall Street

Wall Street refers to the financial district of New York City, named after and centered on the eight-block-long street running from Broadway to South Street on the East River in Lower Manhattan. Over time, the term has become a metonym for the financial markets of the United States as a whole, or...

 broker.

Purdy studied vocal performance and piano at the University of Mississippi

University of Mississippi

The University of Mississippi, also known as Ole Miss, is a public, coeducational research university located in Oxford, Mississippi. Founded in 1844, the school is composed of the main campus in Oxford, four branch campuses located in Booneville, Grenada, Tupelo, and Southaven as well as the...

 and at Juilliard

Juilliard School

The Juilliard School, located at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City, United States, is a performing arts conservatory which was established in 1905...

 and Vocal Pedagogy at Westminster College. Purdy spent many years in Europe conducting and playing tours of the musical productions of Grease

Grease (musical)

Grease is a 1971 musical by Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey. The musical is named for the 1950s United States working-class youth subculture known as the greasers. The musical, set in 1959 at fictional Rydell High School , follows ten working-class teenagers as they navigate the complexities of love,...

, A Chorus Line

A Chorus Line

A Chorus Line is a 1975 musical about Broadway dancers auditioning for spots on a chorus line. The book was authored by James Kirkwood, Jr. and Nicholas Dante, lyrics were written by Edward Kleban, and music was composed by Marvin Hamlisch....

, 42nd Street

42nd Street (musical)

42nd Street is a musical with a book by Michael Stewart and Mark Bramble, lyrics by Al Dubin, and music by Harry Warren. The 1980 Broadway production, directed by an ailing Gower Champion and orchestrated by Philip J. Lang, won the Tony Award for Best Musical and became a long-running hit...

, and with Grease in Paris, France.

His work on Broadway includes Disney's Tarzan

Tarzan

Tarzan is a fictional character, an archetypal feral child raised in the African jungles by the Mangani "great apes"; he later experiences civilization only to largely reject it and return to the wild as a heroic adventurer...

, Glory Days

Glory Days (musical)

Glory Days is a musical with music and lyrics by Nick Blaemire and a book by James Gardiner about four high school friends reuniting a year after graduation....

, Peter Pan

Peter Pan

Peter Pan is a character created by Scottish novelist and playwright J. M. Barrie . A mischievous boy who can fly and magically refuses to grow up, Peter Pan spends his never-ending childhood adventuring on the small island of Neverland as the leader of his gang the Lost Boys, interacting with...

(starring Cathy Rigby

Cathy Rigby

Cathleen Roxanne Rigby , best known as Cathy Rigby, is a former gymnast, actress and speaker.-Early life:Rigby was born in Los Alamitos, California in 1952....

), the original Fantasticks and Frankenstein with Hunter Foster

Hunter Foster

Hunter Foster is an American musical theatre actor/singer, librettist and playwright.-Early life:Foster was born in Lumberton, North Carolina, but raised in Augusta, Georgia and Troy, Michigan. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Studies from the University of Michigan in 1992...

 and has also toured the United States with the Broadway Musicals The Full Monty, Spelling Bee, and Peter Pan.

As a vocal coach he has trained and works regularly with many of the Broadway elite including Tony and Oscar award winners, maintains a private studio for voice coaching in Manhattan, and makes regular contributions to master classes at Universities and performing arts groups across the US and internationally notably in The Netherlands, Spain and Shanghai, China.

His regional theatre credits include North Shore Music Theatre

North Shore Music Theatre

North Shore Music Theatre is the largest operating regional theater in New England. It is located in Beverly, Massachusetts and is one of the few remaining theatre-in-the-round stages left in the United States.-History:...

, Ogunquit, Helen Hayes

Helen Hayes

Helen Hayes Brown was an American actress whose career spanned almost 70 years. She eventually garnered the nickname "First Lady of the American Theatre" and was one of twelve people who have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony Award...

, KC Starlight, The Joseph Papp Public Theatre, Playwrights Horizons and others.

He is the author of a book entitled "Does this song make me look fat?" a guide to song preparation and presentation which is scheduled for release (according to his website) in late 2011.

Recently Purdy has been connected to film studios in California training actors in vocal production and song interpretation for film and has been coaching major "stars" of Japanese theatre and film in the craft ahead of stage performances.

Stephen Purdy lives in New York City.