Composer, Lyricist, Music Director

Xander Browne (he/they) is a queer Black comedic musician/theatermaker based in Brooklyn with a degree in Directing from Columbia University. His work explores the various intersections of religion, sexuality, race, technology, and conservation. He is currently a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Workshop.

This past year he has provided musical direction for workshops at The Public, The Flea, Adelphi University, WP Theater’s Pipeline Festival, and the 5th Climate Change Theatre Action Festival. He also music directed Stanley Wayne Mathis’ Preachin’ to the Choir: An Inconvenient Truth at Lume Studios. Most recently, he directed and orchestrated The American Musical Theater Project’s workshop of Amara Janae Brady’s Manic Pixie Dream Girls Aren’t Black at Northwestern University. He also was a music assistant on the 36th annual NAMT Festival of New Musicals.

His musical W a t c h M e, a gay ASMR fantasia, has been workshopped with the New York Theater Workshop, Adelphi University, Breaking & Entering Theater Collective, and the Roundabout Director’s Group. His musical The Last Vampyre, a lesbian vampire farce set in Winnipeg, Canada, was a finalist for Live & In Color’s Bingham Camp Musical Retreat and is a part of L&IC’s summer 2023 reading group. He is also composing music for Terry Guest and NJ Draine’s Nightbirds, commissioned by the Goodman Theatre.

His frequent collaborations with Patrick B. Phillips have culminated in the musical MIXED, a meditation on being biracial that has been featured in 54 Below’s “Let Them Hear You” concert series. He also wrote music and lyrics for Jasmine Sharma’s THE JAZMINES, a finalist for the 2025 Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference. Xander’s play Take Me Home, a dark racialized take on The Wizard of Oz, was a finalist for the Dr. Floyd Gaffney Playwriting Prize.

Xander has a long history of collaborating with stand-up comedians on musicalizing new and old material. His year long collaboration with Ruby Karp on her show I Don’t Trust Adults recently culminated in a six-week run at Soho Playhouse. He has written original music for Giselle Generally’s ongoing cabaret night Hehe with GG, as well as writing songs for stand-up/drag queen PAPIROSSA’s Putería.

Recently, his music has been featured at 54 Below’s Black Writers Showcase, The Brick’s New Work Festival and in Torn Out Theater’s Antigonick. You can also hear his music in Ars Nova’s ANTfest play The Apostle Peter and His Lover John, Also an Apostle available for streaming. Xander is a featured line-up artist with the Breaking and Entering Theater Collective and has worked extensively with the residency program SPACE on Ryder Farm.

Xander is also available for transcription services, sound design, and music/voice lessons.

Get in touch at xandbrowne@gmail.com.