Ryan Driscoll

Ryan Driscoll is Professor and Head of Musical Theatre at the University of Northern Colorado, where he leads one of the region’s most comprehensive undergraduate musical theatre programs. His work as an educator sits at the intersection of vocal pedagogy, acting and song interpretation, curricular design, professional practice, and international arts collaboration. Drawing upon a career that has taken him from the Broadway theatre industry to classrooms and rehearsal studios around the world, he encourages students to approach musical theatre not simply as a performance discipline, but as a rigorous form of musical, dramatic, and cultural inquiry.

At UNC, Driscoll currently teaches Musical Theatre Song Analysis I, II and III, Private Voice, and graduate Musical Theatre Pedagogy. As Program Area Head, he oversees the artistic and curricular direction of the Musical Theatre program, including admissions, recruitment, academic advising, season planning, student policies, and ongoing curriculum development. He has also developed interdisciplinary initiatives connecting musical theatre training with vocal health, speech-language pathology, American Sign Language interpretation, music, design, and other areas of the performing and visual arts.

His recent creative work at UNC includes co-directing, music directing, and conducting Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Sunday in the Park with George; music supervising and conducting 42nd Street; conducting A Chorus Line; and music directing and conducting Titanic: The Musical in Concert in partnership with the UNC Symphony Orchestra. His teaching and creative interests are united by a belief that musical theatre education should integrate technical craft, intellectual curiosity, artistic collaboration, and the lived experiences students bring into the rehearsal room.

International education is a central component of Driscoll’s academic work. Since 2018, he has served as a Visiting Guest Lecturer at Listaháskóli Íslands (Iceland University of the Arts) in Reykjavík, where he teaches musical theatre voice, acting, and song interpretation to students in music, drama, and dance. He developed a two-week interdisciplinary musical theatre course at the university and subsequently created UNC’s first curricular study-abroad course for theatre students, bringing UNC students to Reykjavík to study alongside their Icelandic peers. In 2026, he taught the inaugural Musical Theatre Lab at Universidad de las Américas Puebla in Mexico, expanding his work in cross-cultural performance training and international institutional collaboration. He has also presented workshops and masterclasses throughout the United States and internationally.

Before joining UNC, Driscoll served as Assistant Director of Music Theatre and Visiting Assistant Professor at New York University’s Steinhardt School, where he taught undergraduate and graduate courses in Song Analysis and Private Voice, helped shape the program’s musical theatre curriculum and oversaw undergraduate admissions. He also directed NYU’s Summer Intensive in Music Theatre, supervising a faculty of 15 professors and guest artists. Earlier in his career, he co-developed the musical theatre program at Columbia Secondary School in Harlem, building an arts program at a New York City public school that previously offered no music or theatre curriculum.

Driscoll’s academic practice is informed by an extensive professional career both onstage and behind the scenes. As an actor, he originated the leading role of Hermie in the musical Summer of ’42, appearing in the production at Goodspeed Musicals (co-staring with Idina Menzel), TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, and Off-Broadway at the Variety Arts Theatre. His performance received the San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Critics Circle Award for Best Lead Actor in a Musical and a Connecticut Critics Circle nomination for Best Debut Performance. He can be heard on the show’s original cast recording and on Believe: The Songs of the Sherman Brothers alongside Kristen Bell. His additional performance credits include Sacramento Music Circus, Ogunquit Playhouse, Bristol Riverside Theatre, and the York Theatre Company.

Alongside his work as a performer and educator, Driscoll has maintained a distinguished career in professional music preparation. As a supervising music copyist, he has prepared, edited and coordinated orchestral materials for Broadway, Off-Broadway, regional, touring, and international productions on six continents. His credits include Come From Away, The Prince of Egypt, Bright Star, Gigi, First Date, Fun Home, The Prom, The King and I, The Addams Family, The Scottsboro Boys, Shrek and White Girl in Danger among many others. He has collaborated with leading composers, orchestrators, music supervisors, and performers, including Marvin Hamlisch, Stephen Flaherty, Jeanine Tesori, Stephen Schwartz, Andrew Lippa, Ricky Ian Gordon, Jonathan Tunick, Larry Hochman, Patti LuPone, Laura Benanti, and Hugh Jackman. This continuing professional work allows him to bring current industry practices—and an unusually detailed understanding of how new musicals are constructed—from the professional theatre directly into his teaching.

Driscoll holds a Bachelors and Masters of Music in Vocal Performance with an emphasis in Music Theatre and a post-graduate Certificate of Advanced Study in Vocal Pedagogy all from New York University. He is a member of Actors’ Equity Association, the American Federation of Musicians Local 802, and the Musical Theatre Educators’ Alliance.