“I thank Supreme Master Ching Hai for the opportunity of setting her thoughtful and perceptive poetry to music. It was a new form for me to work with and I enjoyed the experience. I hope this combination of poetry and music will be pleasing to all of those who love Supreme Master Ching Hai.”

Henry Krieger, 2-time Grammy-winning
and 3-time Oscar-nominated composer

About the Composer

Dreamgirls, Side Show, The Tap Dance Kid… These favorite Broadway shows owe their memorable songs to the brilliance of one composer: 2-time Grammy Award winner and 3-time Academy Award nominee Henry Krieger. As Playbill Magazine once wrote, “Henry Krieger is a composer with a rare gift, that of being able to put the sounds of pop music to successful theatrical use.”

His career path itself reads somewhat like a dream. A native son of New York, USA, Henry Krieger’s musical education began while listening to the strains of Chopin and Liszt flowing from his parents’ phonograph. As time went by, his tastes moved into a more modern expression through exposure to the music of great R&B artists such as Fats Waller and Ray Charles. As a young adult, Mr. Krieger first began attending Broadway musicals, where the show-stopping production numbers made an indelible impression on him. His grade school, equipped with a theater similar to one on Broadway, reinforced his interest in the dramatic arts, and he later continued his creative and liberal arts education at the American University in Washington, DC.

Mr. Krieger began composing for Off-Off Broadway while in his 20s, during which time he met playwright-lyricist Tom Eyen. Together they created the long-running Broadway hit musical Dreamgirls, which opened in 1981 and received six Tony Awards. Mr. Krieger was Tony-nominated for his now legendary score. The original cast album garnered him a Grammy Award.

Years later, Dreamgirls generated new success as a 2006 Dreamworks film starring Jamie Foxx, Jennifer Hudson, Beyoncé Knowles, and Eddie Murphy. The greatly loved movie was adapted and directed by Oscar winner Bill Condon, who had also written and directed the musical film Chicago. Mr. Krieger composed four new songs for the Dreamgirls film version, and had the rare distinction of having three of them receive Academy Award nominations in the same year: “Love You, I Do,” which also won his second Grammy Award, “Listen,” and “Patience.”

In 1983, Mr. Krieger’s musical The Tap Dance Kid, about a boy who dreams of becoming a dancer, opened on Broadway, winning two Tony Awards.

His next Broadway musical, Side Show, on the lives of conjoined twins who became famous stage performers, opened in 1997 and received four Tony nominations, including for Best Score.

Currently Mr. Krieger is working on a re-imagining of Side Show for the stage, to be directed by Bill Condon.

Loving the Silent Tears

Tony winner Kiril Kulish and ensemble perform "The World Is a Whirlpool"

For Loving the Silent Tears, the acclaimed Mr. Henry Krieger set Supreme Master Ching Hai’s poetry from Silent Tears to a powerful tune that closes Act One. It was orchestrated by Emmy winner Doug Katsaros and performed in English and Russian by Tony winner Kiril Kulish. In this lively number, titled “The World Is a Whirlpool,” the unique rhythm in orchestral color was warmly evocative and magnetic. As Playbill noted in the past, Mr. Krieger is able to take various "styles and feed them through a genuine theatrical sensibility."

Then, as the last stop of the spiritual journey in Act Two of the musical, the mystical “Enlightenment” was superbly presented as a duet by Tony-nominated actress/singer Patti Cohenour (as the main character Joy) and Aulacese pop star Hồ Quỳnh Hương (representing her homeland). It was another marvelously written piece from Mr. Krieger. The melodic and effortlessly flowing dance tune gave a sense of harmony and the attainment of enlightenment in unexpectedly easy ways, as the poet described: “But I tell you: / I reached awakening in the middle of my night sleep. / In a plastic tent! / In the heart of a noisy holiday resort.”  

Indeed, with Loving the Silent Tears, Mr. Krieger deftly translated poetic sentiments into appealing musical tunes, which will be long remembered by delighted audience members.

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