By Arianna Williams, Belmont Voice correspondent
In a small theater room, jazz drifts into the hallway, filling the playhouse. Actors belt their lyrics over drums, piano, and bass. The musicians shift tempo to support the singers as the play begins to take shape, an intricate harmony largely unseen and widely unknown to the audience.
Belmont resident Sahil Warsi is a professional musician who plays predominantly in musicals. He is a Berklee-trained bassist who has worked on mostly original plays in the region. Where do some end up? From Boston to Broadway.
“I love the novelty…there are elements of familiarity, but that constant newness, I feel like just keeps you young,” Warsi said.
Warsi grew up in New Delhi, India, where he earned a degree in philosophy. He taught himself electric bass at 15 and later learned to play jazz on an upright bass. He caught an updraft of interest in jazz in New Delhi, performing at events at different venues.
After his mother encouraged him to pursue professional training, he auditioned for Berklee College of Music and moved to Massachusetts with a scholarship. He now teaches music at Endicott College and performs at theaters across New England. At the American Repertory Theater, he has worked mostly on musical premieres. His most recent work is a musical adaptation of “Wonder,” a story about a child with a facial deformity who finds a sense of belonging.
Warsi has worked with the American Repertory Theater in Cambridge on most of his projects. There, works such as “Life of Pi,” “Real Women Have Curves,” a revival of “1776,” and other productions debuted before finding success on Broadway in New York.
“Our mission is to expand the boundaries of theater … I think we have a real appetite for unusual or ambitious projects, and are excited to go on the journey with artists of, you know, realizing what they’re envisioning,” said Emma Watt, an associate producer at the American Repertory Theater.
Warsi said performing in these shows can be intense and high-pressure, but that challenge is what he loves about playing in them. Although shows can take up to seven years to be produced, pit musicians have only three to four days to master the music without mistakes.
“I’ve been in a lot of really high-pressure situations–rehearsals… I have been in rooms where, you know, people get fired at the first one,” Warsi said.
Outside of music, Warsi is also a private pilot, having recently received his license. For him, the worlds of jazz and aviation require a similar commitment.
“I always play the best shows on a night after I flew in the morning. I think it requires a lot of the same focus and the same discipline and the same dedication to consistency, where you really have to trust yourself and trust your instincts and trust your training,” he said.
Greater Boston audiences influence how well a show may perform in London’s West End theater and on Broadway, according to Watt. For a show to succeed, musicians like Warsi must adapt quickly when songs are added or changed at the last minute.
“You really need a kind of chameleon musician,” Watt said.
The theater season is picking back up, with Warsi playing in a Lyric Stage Boston production of “Something Rotten” in Boston. The American Repertory Theater is also preparing to premiere “Black Swan” this summer.
“It’s always really gratifying to see our work go out into the world and continue to meet new audiences and grow,” Watt said.
This story was written by a journalism student in BU’s Newsroom program, a partnership between the university, The Belmont Voice and other news organizations in the Boston area.