This video captures a moment from my time performing accordion while serving as Bandleader for Cirque du Soleil’s arena ice show CRYSTAL.

CRYSTAL was Cirque du Soleil’s first production created specifically for the ice, combining live music, skating, acrobatics, and large-scale touring logistics. Performing in this environment required constant musical awareness—responding to movement on the ice, syncing tightly with technology, and maintaining consistency across a fast-moving international schedule.

The accordion is woven throughout the score, supporting the show’s shifting moods and styles. From a musical standpoint, this work was less about spotlight moments and more about reliability, adaptability, and collaboration within a very large creative machine.

I’m sharing this clip as a snapshot of the kind of projects I’ve been involved in recently—long-form productions where musical leadership, flexibility, and calm execution matter just as much as performance itself.

Here’s my response to the new political put-down term “Theater Kid”.

Why You Should Want to Be a “Theater Kid”
By Conrad Askland

When the term “theater kid” is used as a political insult, what is it supposed to imply?

Overwrought?
Performative?
Naïve?
Cringe?

In other words: unserious.

But that insult relies on a caricature that has little to do with what theater kids actually are.

Theater is not chaos. It’s coordination.
It is not indulgence. It’s discipline.
It is not fragility. It’s resilience under pressure.
After four decades in the entertainment business, I can say this plainly: theater is a complex, unforgiving system.
Theater kids learn how to prepare obsessively so they can adapt when things go wrong. They learn how to recover publicly without panic or blame. They learn to read rooms, adjust instantly, take criticism without defensiveness, and apply it immediately. They learn to lead without dominating and collaborate with people they didn’t choose, because the work of theater demands it.
Theater Kids also learn the very rare skill of how to create meaning.

Theater Kids are trained to ask why. Why does this moment matter? Theater kids understand that humans are ultimately persuaded by stories, not by speeches or even legislation.
History proves this.
In 1953, during the height of McCarthyism, Arthur Miller wrote The Crucible. By dramatizing the Salem witch trials, he exposed the mechanics of fear, accusation, and moral panic in his own time. It spoke truth to power and changed how people in the United States understood what was happening to them in real time.
That is the power of theater and that is the power of the Theater Kid.
So when “theater kid” is used as an insult, what’s really being mocked is Depth. Empathy. Complexity of human emotion. The refusal to be intimidated from speaking truth to power.
And that, more than anything else, is what makes certain political movements very uneasy.
We have the power to change the world for the better. Be a Theater Kid.

An interview about my updated script and orchestrations for the 2025 run of PAN the musical at the ACT Theatre in Anacortes, WA. Join Peter Pan, Wendy, Captain and the Lost Boys on their adventures in Neverland.

Also, GoSkagit article on PAN the musical:
Read PDF PAN article

Link to PAN musical article

See you in Neverland!

Original article: https://stereostickman.com/interviews/conrad-askland-pan-the-musical/

Let’s talk about the new musical theatre show – a fresh direction with your production of PAN the musical. What inspired you to take on this project, and why the Peter Pan story?

PAN actually began for a very down-to-earth reason. Back in 2013, a local youth theatre group I cared about was on the brink of bankruptcy. A friend mentioned they were preparing to close their doors, and something in me just lit up. Almost instantly, the idea of creating a brand-new musical hit me. I can still remember the moment: the idea of Peter Pan and Neverland came into my mind, and I literally got a shiver down my spine. It felt like the idea chose me, not the other way around.

I wrote the show as a fundraiser, hoping it might give this youth theater company a fighting chance. And thankfully, it worked. The premiere production was a success, and that theatre group is still alive and thriving today. So while people may assume I chose the Peter Pan story for its magic, nostalgia, or adventure, the truth is it began as an act of rescue, an attempt to keep a space for young artists alive in my community.

From that very practical beginning came something unexpectedly meaningful, and the show has continued to evolve ever since.

When did you first write the book, music and lyrics for the show – was that while you were touring, or during down time?

Most of PAN was written at sea while I was working as a musician on a cruise ship. The very first version of PAN came to life leading up to its 2013 premiere at the Historic Lincoln Theatre in Mount Vernon, WA. Back then, I scored the show for a seven-piece pit orchestra, and we performed everything live with no tracks. Just musicians, adrenaline, and the thrill of seeing Neverland unfold each night.

For the 2025 production, the creative process has been a completely different journey. I actually started revisiting the script and reworking the orchestrations in July of 2024 while touring with Cirque du Soleil. There’s something about being on the road with constant travel, new cities, and the controlled chaos backstage. That energy sparks a lot of unexpected creativity. I’d be juggling Cirque cues during the day and then sneaking away at night to tweak dialogue for Wendy or rethink the sound of the Lost Boys.

The Cirque du Soleil tour was scheduled to wrap in June 2025, which created the perfect window to bring PAN back that fall. And this time I didn’t just revise the script. I went all in and created fully orchestrated soundtracks for the entire show. It’s been a chance to reimagine the world of Neverland with a much larger musical canvas, and I’m excited for audiences to hear just how big and cinematic the score has become.

How long has this whole production been in the making?

This production has been brewing for a little over a year, but in many ways it feels like it’s been gathering steam for much longer. I officially dove into updating the script in July of 2025, right in the middle of performing with Cirque du Soleil in São Paulo, Brazil. Picture this: I’d finish a Cirque show, step out into the warm Brazilian night, and then jump onto late-night Zoom calls with our director to dissect the script line by line.
Those conversations were incredibly detailed with everything from character arcs to scene pacing to the emotional temperature of individual moments. We also spent a lot of time crafting a polished presentation for theaters, shaping not just the artistic vision but how we wanted to introduce PAN to potential venues. So yes, it’s been over a year in the making, but it’s been an exhilarating, globe-trotting creative marathon.

The show runs from November 21 to December 20, 2025 at the ACT Theatre in Anacortes, WA. What can attendees expect from PAN the musical, and who is your target audience?

PAN really lives at the crossroads of comedy, high-brow musical theatre, and a kind of mischievous vaudeville energy that invites the audience right into the story. It’s one of those rare shows that adults and kids can genuinely enjoy together; not in a “sit through it for the kids” way, but in a “we both laughed at completely different things for completely different reasons” way.

At its core, this is the classic Peter Pan tale audiences know… but we throw in plenty of twists, surprises, and sideways turns that even longtime fans won’t see coming. There are jokes aimed squarely at the grown-ups, playful moments for the little ones, and then these sudden pockets of real beauty and emotional depth that let everyone breathe together.

Audiences can expect an adventure that spans the whole spectrum—moments of joy, flashes of darkness, bursts of silliness, and scenes that land with unexpected heart. It’s Neverland as a full theatrical experience: magical, unpredictable, and alive.

How did you come to assemble the perfect cast and orchestra for this show?

Because this is a community theatre production, we started with completely open public auditions, which is one of my favorite parts of the process. You never know who’s going to walk through the door: seasoned performers, brand-new faces, or someone who surprises you with exactly the spark a character needs. At the same time, both the director and I quietly reached out to a handful of people we knew we wanted to collaborate with, just to make sure certain roles had strong contenders in the mix.

But assembling the “perfect” cast isn’t something that magically happens at auditions. The real magic begins the moment rehearsals start. From day one, we create a room with focus, momentum, and trust. When actors feel supported and challenged, they start taking bigger risks, digging deeper, and growing into the fullest version of their characters.

The perfect cast isn’t something you find, it’s something you build together. And watching that transformation happen over the rehearsal process is one of the most rewarding parts of bringing PAN back to life.

How does the local experience compare to your more recent experiences of traveling the world?

Working around the world with major productions gives you access to enormous technical teams, cutting-edge gear, and entire departments devoted to making every cue, light beam, and sound effect land with precision. Community theatre is a completely different universe. There isn’t the same depth of technology or budget, so you learn to lean into the things you can control: the storytelling, the acting, and the vocal performances.
The heart of community theater is the part I find refreshing. In community theatre, the heart is right on the surface. You feel the passion, the commitment, and the joy of people who are doing this because they truly love it. That raw energy often makes up for anything we might lack in terms of flashy effects or high-end infrastructure. In some ways, it brings you back to the essence of why we make theatre in the first place: humans telling stories together, with everything they’ve got.

You’ve amassed over 1.5 billion streams on your original music so far – an immense achievement, congratulations. How does it feel to have so many people hear your music, and how do you maintain your humility and focus when creating new works such as this, given that your audience is so large and undoubtedly has expectations?

Hitting over 1.5 billion streams is surreal, but in a strange way it doesn’t change how I approach the work. I’m always moving forward—writing new music, developing shows, experimenting with multimedia projects. The numbers themselves feel almost abstract, because so much of that success is a combination of organic growth, timing and a little bit of luck.

What keeps me grounded is the process. Each new project becomes its own world, and I try to give that world the attention it deserves—its aesthetics, its architecture, its emotional tone. Some pieces take off and reach millions of people; others land quietly and find a small, devoted audience. But once I release something, it really doesn’t belong to me anymore. The public decides how it lives, breathes, and travels.

My job is simply to create with honesty and curiosity. That’s the part I can control, and that’s what keeps the work exciting, no matter how big the audience becomes.

Last time we spoke, you said: ‘the passion comes from the need to get my ideas into fixed form. If I have a musical idea, it drives me crazy until I can put it in fixed form’. In this case, is having made the musical the satisfying point, or will it not feel complete until you present it to an audience and can witness their reactions in real time?

For me, a piece of art is only halfway alive when it’s finished on the page or in the studio. It doesn’t truly take its first breath until it’s placed in front of a real, public, paying audience. People who are giving you their time, focus, and curiosity. That moment is the completion of the circle.

When I’m creating, I often imagine myself sitting anonymously in the audience, experiencing the show as if I had nothing to do with it. But I never write toward a hypothetical demographic or some imagined “target audience.” I learned early on that the moment you start guessing what a group of people will like, you lose the thread of what makes the work truthful. I create what moves me, what I find compelling, entertaining, or emotionally necessary.
The audience is always the final collaborator. Their laughter, silence, gasps, restlessness, or engagement—that’s the moment the work becomes real. Until then, it’s just potential energy. Without an audience, art is an idea trapped in a jar. It only becomes art when it meets the people brave enough to respond to it.

You also mentioned that the hard part can be knowing what you want to say. What is that you wanted to say with PAN the musical, and what do you hope people take away from the show?

At the surface level, PAN is absolutely about entertainment. It’s about giving audiences the iconic moments, the magic, and the adventure they expect from the Peter and Wendy story. But underneath that familiar framework, I wanted to explore some deeper questions that have always fascinated me.
One of the big ones is responsibility: Who is really steering the journey? Is it Peter with his reckless freedom, or Wendy with her emerging sense of maturity and consequence? Their dynamic opens a doorway into bigger reflections on youth and how adults romanticize it, fear it, try to reclaim it, or try to control it. Neverland becomes this mirror where each character’s view of youth reveals something about who they are and what they’ve lost or hope to regain.

I’m also interested in how much agency we truly have over our own personal journeys. Are we the authors of our stories, or are we just improvising our way through them? And at the heart of the most serious moment of the show, I wanted to touch on a question that feels universal: Where do belief, life, and death intersect? It’s a surprisingly profound idea hidden inside a tale we usually see as lighthearted.

What I hope people take away is a sense of wonder mixed with reflection—laughter and excitement, yes, but also something that lingers. Something that makes them think about their own path, their own youth, and the stories they’re still writing.

Is there anything else you’d like to say about the upcoming shows?

One thing I’m especially excited about is that PAN is now fully available for community theaters to produce. The show has already proven itself both artistically and financially, and with this new 2025 update, it’s more accessible than ever. We now have fully orchestrated soundtracks that make it possible for theaters of all sizes to stage a big, cinematic version of the show without needing a large pit orchestra.

If directors or producers are looking for a family-friendly musical that still packs emotional depth, action, humor, and a touch of theatrical magic, PAN is a fantastic fit. Anyone interested in bringing the show to their community can reach out to me directly through my website at https://conradaskland.com/. I’d love to see PAN take flight in new places.

For this run I’ve created all-new fully orchestrated soundtracks and also updated the script. PAN premiered in 2013 at the Historic Lincoln Theatre in Mount Vernon, WA. I’m really looking forward to the audience response to all the new script tweaks, updated orchestrations and of course the performances of this wonderful local cast.

Fun Fact: This is the first time I’ll be able to actually watch one of my shows from the audience because I’m usually conducting from the pit. Hope to see you there and watch out for that crocodile!

In this video I do a live pipe organ improvisation in the style of J.S. Bach’s “Toccata” from his Toccata and Fugue in D minor. The purpose of this was to have some fun creating new Halloween pipe organ music while incorporating some music theory from Bach’s original organ work. This was a LOT of fun to record and I hope you enjoy it.

Interview with Conrad Askland about his work as Bandleader and Keyboardist for Cirque du Soleil. Original article at: https://stereostickman.com/interviews/conrad-askland/

Taking time out from his busy schedule, Music Director and Ableton Live specialist Conrad Askland – currently touring the globe with the iconic Cirque du Soleil – kindly stopped by for an interview.

We talk everything from discovering his unique role in music, to achieving high-profile opportunities, writing music, staying inspired, building a presence on YouTube, the value of collaboration, and the lure of ambition. Here’s the conversation in full.

* * *

Conrad – excited to talk with you, thanks for the opportunity! To introduce things, how would you describe your role within the music world?

On live shows I work as a music director and conductor/keyboardist, and in music publishing I work as a music producer and composer. I am also an Ableton Live specialist, which is music software used in many live show performances.

Who or what first inspired you to develop a career within the music and creativity realm?

When I was very young I was classically trained as a boy soprano performing Early Music, Sacred and Baroque music with the Northwest Boychoir. This led to performing with Seattle Opera in many operas and eventually a title role. The start of it all was singing classical music and I was trained in a very old-school and strict classical style. It laid the foundation for everything that would follow.

How did you come to work as a music director – where did that journey start, and what does this job entail?

It was never my intention to be a music director. Truthfully I don’t think I was even aware that music directors existed. I only knew about classical conductors. Because I was a strong piano player, sight reader and improviser – I always ended up being the one to “put together the music” and in time there was this slow realization that “Oh, I’m a music director”

You’ve recently been touring with the globally renowned Cirque du Soleil – how did you first get involved with this, and what does your job entail here?

I started with Cirque du Soleil in 2008 on their resident show in Macau, China called “Zaia”. The job meant that I actually lived in China for 4 years while working as bandleader, keyboardist and accordion player for the show. After that I worked as bandleader on the touring show “Varekai” and now I’m working as bandleader on the Cirque du Soleil ice-skating show “Crystal”. Currently we’re performing in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The bandleader position for Cirque du Soleil means that you perform in the show, rehearse the musicians and run all the music cues during the show. Running the music cues is very important because so much of the music is tied to specific stunts that the acrobats perform and every show is a little different because we’re performing live with all the other circus artists.

I also do all the computer editing of the music arrangements that we run in conjunction with live musicians during the show. So the job is half performing artist and half computer geek and I love it all of it.

What’s the best thing about travelling the world so intensely with Cirque du Soleil, and conversely, what are some of the challenges?

Almost all of us love to travel or we wouldn’t be working on a world tour. In the past two years we’ve performed across five continents. I take full advantage of our different locations with city tours, seeing live music concerts and doing photography around most of the cities we visit.

The challenge for any touring performer is the balance between work and our off time. One thing we all have in common is that we are extremely driven and focused on our work. It’s very easy to forget that the down time is also an important element of our work-life tour balance. We use the term “self-care” a lot, meaning we need to remember to get outside and enjoy the local culture a bit wherever we are traveling.

You come from a notably musical family, and naturally became a multi-instrumentalist. Is there a particular instrument and/or genre that continues to be your favourite in terms of pure escapism and joy?

Piano and the music of J.S. Bach. He is an endless source of inspiration to me and if I choose music just to listen to for enjoyment, it’s almost always J.S. Bach. In my work I am always listening to new styles of music, practicing new music and learning new orchestration techniques. So the simple pleasure of just listening to J.S. Bach is something I never tire of.

You’re also an Ableton Live Specialist – what made you choose to master Ableton Live above all other DAWs, and what is it about creative production that draws such passion from you?

With recording I used all analog gear until I switched to ProTools back around 1997. I started learning Ableton Live in 2008 because it was the software that Cirque du Soleil uses to run its shows. The more I got into Ableton, the more I was comfortable and enjoyed the process. I went on to get Professional Certification in Ableton Live with Berklee College of Music and now Ableton is my go-to platform for producing music.

“The passion comes from the need to get my ideas into fixed form. If I have a musical idea, it drives me crazy until I can put it in fixed form as music notation or a finished recording. I’ve worked on shows and producing music my entire life so now I don’t question it. It’s just what I do.”

You’re crushing it on YouTube at the moment – what would you say have been the key tools in growing your audience?

I just started learning how to make videos in early 2021 during the pandemic. Video production had always been a blind spot for me so I just chose video production as a new skillset to learn. It’s been a very long and slow climb to learn all the ins and outs of YouTube and video production. I’d say it’s just simply that I kept focused on it and learned as I went along.

The difficult part for me is that my musical styles are so varied that it doesn’t appeal to a single niche audience. No one will like all of my music but most people will like some of it. I have a very diverse and sometimes eclectic fan base. I like the quote “build it and they will come”.

You’ve built a reputation for being incredibly eclectic as a musician – how does a creative session begin when there are no genre or stylistic limits; where do you start?

The hard part is knowing what you want to say. Once you know that, then how to say it usually presents itself. I like the Sondheim rule of “content dictates form” particularly when it comes to shows and musical theatre. I’ll always start with the elements that I know “have to be done”. And once I’ve done those things, then new elements appear that “have to be done” and I keep chipping away like that until I have a final product that feels right.

How important is collaboration and networking, in your view, when building a lasting career in the music industry?

My experience is that there’s two camps in general on that. There’s the group that’s really good at networking and there’s the group that has a strong work ethic. I’m more in the work ethic group. Put me in a large social gathering and I’ll be the one in the corner staring awkwardly at people. But put me one-on-one with someone that has a good creative idea and I will be engaged for hours exploring that idea with them. I don’t do networking but I do forge authentic creative friendships with people.

Do you have a particular ambition or dream in mind for the next couple of years – something new or different you’d like to achieve or work towards?

I follow the river where it take me and it’s usually someplace unforeseen and fun.

Is there anything else we should know?

I would like to be on the production team for the world’s next greatest show.

Photos from our run in Portland Oregon (May 2025) with the Cirque du Soleil ice-skating show Crystal at the Veterans Memorial Arena. I’ve been looking forward all year to visiting Portland, Oregon and it did not disappoint! Voodoo Donuts, vibrant nightclub scene, street art and the wacky crazy street life that makes people say “Keep Portland Weird”. (Photo above is my bandleader station at Crystal)

This is our second-to-the-last run of Cirque du Soleil’s Crystal show as we wrap up the Crystal world tour. In the last three years we performed across 5 continents and it was the experience of a lifetime. Much love to our cast and crew as we prepare to move on to our next adventures, and of course much love to the wonderful Crystal audiences worldwide that made this Cirque du Soleil show such a monumental success. Thank you!

Photography by Coral Scoles-Cobrun. Visit her IG page at: https://www.instagram.com/coral.scolescoburn/

As the Cirque du Soleil ice-skating show Crystal nears the end of its 6 year world tour, here are some behind-the-scenes and show photos from our run in Kelowna, Canada in May 2025. Performing with this show as bandleader and accordion has been an absolute pleasure with such wonderful cast and crew. This has been my third show with Cirque du Soleil. We performed across 5 continents for well over a million people. The adrenalin performances and travels across the world have been absolutely amazing. Thank you to Tegan Klein for the wonderful photos!

Photos by Tegan Klein. Visit Gloam Media at: https://www.instagram.com/gloam_media/

UPDATE: My “Pope Trump” “First American Pope” video was released TWO DAYS before Trump said “I’d like to be pope”, FIVE DAYS before Trump’s official social media accounts posted an AI photo of himself as pope, and ELEVEN DAYS before the Vatican did indeed select the First American Pope? Can I see the future? Maybe…

On Monday, April 21st 2025, Pope Francis passed away. That night the thought occurred to me that Donald Trump, with his immense ego and lack of self-awareness, would probably want to be the new pope. I started working that night on a parody video of what it might look like if Donald Trump was The First American Pope.

I recorded a film-trailer style voiceover, put in my songs “Agnus Dei” and “A Walk in the Park” as background music; and then generated AI video clips and AI Trump voices that I thought would fit the aesthetic I was looking for in a “First American Pope” parody film trailer. I released the video on Sunday, April 27th 2025.

Here’s where it gets weird. Two days later on Tuesday, April 29th, 2025 – Trump was talking to reporters and said “I’d like to be pope. That would be my number one choice”. UNBELIEVABLE!

A few people have said that my parody is offensive, but I tell you that nothing on God’s green earth is more offensive than Trump believing he could be pope.

Oh, but we’ve only just begun. A few hours later, Lindsey Graham (South Carolina Republican) said: “I was excited to hear that President Trump is open to the idea of being the next Pope,” wrote alongside a video of Trump’s remarks. “This would truly be a dark horse candidate, but I would ask the papal conclave and Catholic faithful to keep an open mind about this possibility!” (https://www.newsweek.com/lindsey-graham-trump-pope-2065931)

Thanks all for joining in on the fun and please share my “Pope Trump” video.

Oh, my political videos? Yah shoor yoo betchya there’s going to be more… many more…

Here’s an interview all about my “Pope Trump” video: