Composers, lyricists, musicians and performers. Most people remember their favorite composers and singers, but not the people whose words helped make those beloved songs memorable. The Shedd champions lyricists as much as we do the composers and performers who helped create “the American Songbook”. E.Y. “Yip” Harburg (1896-1981), one of our absolute favorite lyricists, for instance, wrote what may be the most memorable of all musical theatre songs, “Over the Rainbow”, along with many more. Yet few people recognize his name. The Shedd Community Music School is proud to bring that name to the forefront in the name of our musical theatre program, The E. Y. Harburg Academy for Musical Theatre. Starting with The Revue for high school students, we have now branched into The Vaudeville Hour for middle school students, SongFest for students grades K-5 and our Tech & Stagecraft course for students interested in learning the behind-the-scenes aspects of musical theatre.