Duncan Sheik’s family announced his death at 56, ending a career that stretched from the pop hit “Barely Breathing” to Broadway’s “Spring Awakening.”
CBS News reported that Sheik died Thursday from cardiac arrest, citing his mother, Suzanne Sheik. His family had earlier said he was receiving medical care.
Sheik built a rare two-part career. He first reached a mass audience as a pop singer, then found lasting success by writing music for the stage.
His family said Sheik was “surrounded by love” at the end. Its statement remembered the musician in personal terms: “Duncan was a father, husband, son, brother, and friend.”
Sheik is survived by his parents, his wife, Nora Sheik, his daughter, Ines Sheik, and two half-siblings, CBS News said.
Sheik moved to Los Angeles in the early 1990s to pursue music. His breakthrough came with the 1996 single “Barely Breathing,” which remained on the Billboard Hot 100 for more than a year.
The song made him a pop star, but it did not define the limits of his work. He continued releasing music through the 1990s and early 2000s before expanding his career on Broadway.
That shift began in 1999, when playwright Steven Sater approached Sheik about adapting the German play “Spring Awakening” as a musical. Their collaboration would become Sheik’s biggest stage success.
“Spring Awakening” opened on Broadway in 2007 with Lea Michele, Jonathan Groff, and John Gallagher Jr. among its stars. The production won eight Tony Awards, including best musical.
Sheik won Tony Awards for best orchestrations and best original musical score. He and Sater posed with their award for the score on June 10, 2007.
Sheik later worked on a musical adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ “American Psycho,” which reached Broadway in 2016. “Alice by Heart,” another project with Sater, played off-Broadway in 2018.
His work also brought him to Carnegie Hall, where he performed in New York on Nov. 21, 2015. His career had moved far beyond the one pop single that first made his name.
Sheik leaves behind music that crossed the usual line between radio and theater. Lasting work is a fitting measure of a life spent creating it.
