Erik Della Penna

Erik Della Penna was born in The Bronx and grew up on Long Island, New York. He is conservatory-trained, having received a degree in Classical Guitar from the Mannes School of Music.^[2]

In 1994, Della Penna began touring with pop singer Joan Osborne on the Mercury Records label. Later, he toured and recorded with American singer-songwriter Natalie Merchant in support of several studio albums. During this time he also toured with folk singer Joan Baez and joined the international band Hazmat Modine as a guitarist and songwriter.^[6] Della Penna also has his own band called Kill Henry Sugar,^[7] a "metropolitan folk" duo with drummer and grammy-winning producer^[8] Dean Sharenow.^[2]

In February 2024, his musical Dead Outlaw opened at the Minetta Lane Theatre. It became a New York Times critic's pick^[9] and earned eleven Drama Desk Award nominations, winning three.^[10] It opened on Broadway at the Longacre Theatre on April 27th, 2025.^[11] This production was also designated a New York Times critic's pick^[12] and was nominated for seven Tony Awards in May of 2025.^[13]

Theater and film

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Credit	Category	Producer	ref
2002	Toby and the Big Top	Composer, Lyricist	Children's musical	Walden Media	[14]
2009	Remnants of a War	Composer	Film score	Pinhole Pictures	[15]
2015	Kitty Hawk	Composer, Lyricist	Children's musical	Adrienne Arsht Center	[16]
	Tree Man	Composer	Film score	Jon Reiner, Brad Rothschild	[17]
2024	Dead Outlaw	Composer, Lyricist	Musical	Audible	[3]
2025	Dead Outlaw	Composer, Lyricist	Musical	Lia Vollack Sonia Friedman	[18]

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Recorded music

More information Year, Title ...

Year	Title	Artist	Credit	ref
2000	Righteous Love	Joan Osborne	Guitars, Composer	[19]
2001	Damascus	David Yazbek	Guitar (Electric), Lap Steel Guitar, Composer	[20]
	Popular Music for Today's Active Lifestyles	Kill Henry Sugar	Guitars, Vocals, Composer	[21]
2003	Sell This Place		Guitars, Vocals, Composer	[22]
2004	Love Beach		Guitars, Vocals, Composer	[23]
2007	Swing Back and Down		Guitars, Vocals, Composer	[24]
2008	Evil Monkey Man	David Yazbek	Composer, Guitars	[25]
2009	Hot Messiah	Kill Henry Sugar	Guitars, Vocals, Composer
2011	Cicada	Hazmat Modine	Guitar, Vocals, Composer	[26]
2016	Extra-Deluxe-Supreme		Composer, Guitars, Vocals	[27]
2020	An Evening in New York	Rachelle Garnier & Erik Della Penna	Composer, Guitar, Banjo, Vocals
	Box of Breath	Hazmat Modine	Banjo, Composer, Guitar, Vocals	[28]
	The Mojo Manifesto	Mojo Nixon	Composer	[29]
2021	Rainy	Erik Della Penna	Composer, vocals, instrumentation	[30]
2023	Bonfire	Hazmat Modine	Vocals, Guitars, Composer	[31]
	Stop Time	Kill Henry Sugar	Vocals, Composer, Guitars

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