GREENSBORO, N.C. — “I remember the first day I met Ariana, I was like really nervous to like walk on set and be like, 'Hi, I'm your music supervisor', you know, like Ariana Grande doesn't need a music supervisor, you know? I was kind of like, who am I? But she was so warm and so kind and so wonderful," recalled Dominick Amendum, the music supervisor for Universal Pictures' adaptation Wicked.
This was just a regular day in the land of Oz him once he and his family flew to London for a year to work on the Wicked movie.
“When you have a cast like this, your job as a music director, music supervisor isn't so much like, you know, no sing it this way. The job is to support them and make them feel you know, like they can do their best work," said Amendum.
But his journey with music began long before the cameras started rolling.
“The first show I music directed when I was 15 in high school was Pippin, uh, which was written by Stephen Schwartz, of course, who wrote Wicked. And when I did that and was the music director for that, I just got the bug," said Amendum.
With a passion for the arts, Dominick joined UNCG’s School of Music where he graduated in 2001. Not 4 years down the yellow brick road though…
“I believe it was January of 2005, I was asked, If I would be interested in being the associate music director of the Wicked First National Tour," recounted Amendum.
He would get the offer that changed his life.
“I supervised all the companies, casting and kind of musical maintenance and would fly around the country and check in on all the tours and all the sit down companies. And all the while, whenever I was home in New York, I was conducting the show on Broadway in the evening," Amendum said.
Years later, now a faculty member of his alma mater, the Land of Oz called again and he found himself returning to his roots, only this time on the silver screen.
“If someone had said to me, you know, you're going to work on this giant show, then you're going to get to work on the movie adaptation of this giant show, wouldn't have believed them and I would have been delighted to find out that that was true," Amendum said.
In addition to his wicked talents, Amendum helped launch UNCG's musical theatre program. You can see Wicked in theaters starting on Thursday night.