Behind the Scenes with Chuck Bontrager ’94 and Heather Aranyi ’05

Concertmaster of Hamilton: An American Musical of the Chicago company and artist and teacher-in-residence at the Lyric Opera of Chicago come together to share their stories as entrepreneurial artists in the 21st century. What’s inspiring about these artists is that they’re not afraid to be vulnerable when it comes to elaborating on the topics of injury, fear, and insecurity – most which are not often talked about in the creative arts community. Aranyi, who is also on faculty at the Farley Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Northwestern, offers her expertise on branding classes she teaches on campus, one of which Bontrager was invited as a guest speaker at. No matter how many times (around a thousand) he performed Hamilton or she sang cantatas and debuted at the Carnegie Hall, they still get nervous. And that makes them human.