Joshua Rosenblum

Last updated
Joshua Rosenblum
Born (1963-05-10) May 10, 1963 (age 61)
Genres Musical theatre
Contemporary classical music
Occupation(s) Composer
Music journalist
Lecturer (Yale)
Conductor
Arranger
Instrument Piano

Joshua Rosenblum (born May 10, 1963) is an American composer, conductor, pianist, arranger, music journalist, and author. He has composed extensively for the concert hall as well as for musical theatre, and currently teaches Composing for Musical Theater at Yale University, his alma mater, as well as Conducting at New York University. As a pianist, he has performed frequently in the New York City area as soloist and accompanist, as well as in Broadway pit orchestras, and with the New York City Center Encores! Orchestra. He has conducted numerous Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, including How the Grinch Stole Christmas! , Wonderful Town , Falsettos , Miss Saigon , and Anything Goes . He served as pianist and associate conductor for the hit 2022 Broadway revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's Into the Woods, and can be heard playing on the Grammy-winning original cast recording.

Contents

Education

Rosenblum attended Marietta High School in his hometown of Marietta, Ohio, and spent summers at the Interlochen Arts Camp in Interlochen, Michigan. He graduated summa cum laude from Yale College in 1983 at the age of 20, and proceeded directly to graduate school at the Yale School of Music, where he studied piano with Ward Davenny and Donald Currier, and played in master classes for Claude Frank. Among his composition teachers were Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick, and Frank Lewin (Composition for Film). He earned his M.M. in Piano Performance in 1985. Rosenblum is now a faculty member at Yale, where he has taught Composing for Musical Theater since 2006.

Rosenblum joined the Conducting faculty of New York University's Steinhardt School in spring 2020, and has conducted several musicals and operas there.

Musical theater

Rosenblum composed the score for the Off-Broadway show Fermat's Last Tango, [1] a musical version of the story of Andrew Wiles, the Princeton mathematician who proved Fermat’s Last Theorem, the most famous unsolved problem in mathematics. The show was a collaboration between Rosenblum and his wife, novelist, librettist and singer Joanne Sydney Lessner, who wrote the book and co-wrote the lyrics with Rosenblum. Fermat’s Last Tango [2] ran in New York at the York Theatre Company, and received its international premiere at Teatro da Trindade in Lisbon. Rosenblum and Lessner also collaborated on Einstein's Dreams (based on the best-selling novel by Alan Lightman), Garbo and Me, based on the life of screen legend Greta Garbo, and The Haunted Hotel , which was commissioned by the Signature Theatre in Virginia as part of their New American Voices Project. Einstein’s Dreams was given a concert performance at Symphony Space in 2009 starring John Bolton and Kate Shindle, and also received performances at Teatro da Trindade in Lisbon. The show had its Off-Broadway premiere production in 2019, presented by the Prospect Theater Company at 59E59 Theaters, with first preview performance on November 5 and the closing performance on December 14. The Off-Broadway production of Einstein's Dreams was nominated for four Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Music (Rosenblum), Outstanding Lyrics (Lessner and Rosenblum), Outstanding Lighting Design (Herrick Goldman), and Outstanding Projections (David Bengali).

Rosenblum wrote the songs and incidental music for Quincy Long's play The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite, which ran Off-Broadway at the Atlantic Theater Company in 1997. [3]

In 2005, in response to the re-election of President George W. Bush, Rosenblum created the satirical musical revue Bush is Bad, [4] which ran for a year and a half at New York’s Triad Theater, [5] and spawned additional productions in Los Angeles, [6] Minneapolis, and Charleston, SC. In its original iteration, it starred Kate Baldwin, Michael McCoy, and Neal Mayer, who each portrayed multiple figures in the Bush administration. Also along political lines, Rosenblum wrote book, music, and lyrics for Mark Felt, Superstar, which tells the story of the Watergate scandal from the perspective of "Deep Throat," the FBI official who was the secret source for journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein of the Washington Post . Mark Felt, Superstar had performances at the Triad in April 2015, and a limited run at the York Theatre in 2017. In February 2016, the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London presented a devised musical theater work consisting of Rosenblum's songs, entitled "Love is Not a Science". As a result, the Central School commissioned Rosenblum and Lessner to write a new musical, based on the play Stage Door by Edna Ferber and George S. Kaufman, which received its world premiere production in May, 2017. In November 2021, the Central School presented the world premiere production of Rosenblum and Lessner's musical Garbo and Me, based on the life of legendary screen actress Greta Garbo.

Concert music

Rosenblum has composed extensively for the concert hall, and his works can be heard on two recordings, Impetuosities and Sundry Notes, both on the Albany Records label. In 2009, Rosenblum founded The Pit Stop Players, a chamber group composed of New York freelance musicians. The group focuses on contemporary classical music, including Rosenblum’s own compositions, but also plays pieces from a wide variety of other genres, including rock, jazz, fusion, opera, and film music. The group's concerts have been critically acclaimed. [7] A 2012 performance featured Rosenblum's original work, "A Young Person's Guide to the Pit Stop Players." The piece, an homage to Britten's similarly titled "A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra," was narrated by actress/activist Cynthia Nixon.

Music journalism

Rosenblum has contributed CD and performance reviews as well as feature articles to Opera News magazine on a regular basis since 1999. He has also written for Newsday , Stagebill, ZEALnyc, and The Charleston Post and Courier (as Overview Critic for the Spoleto Festival USA). His book Closer Than Ever: The Unique Six-Decade Partnership of Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire was published by Oxford University Press in June, 2024. Rosenblum's next book will be about composer/lyricist/music theorist Maury Yeston.

Related Research Articles

Adam Guettel is an American composer-lyricist of musical theater and opera. The grandson of musical theatre composer Richard Rodgers, he is best known for his musicals Floyd CollinsThe Light in the Piazza,, and Days of Wine and Roses.

Maury Yeston is an American composer, lyricist and music theorist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">James Lapine</span> American stage director and librettist

James Elliot Lapine is an American stage director, playwright, screenwriter, and librettist. He has won the Tony Award for Best Book of a Musical three times, for Into the Woods, Falsettos, and Passion. He has frequently collaborated with Stephen Sondheim and William Finn.

Stephen Flaherty is an American composer of musical theatre and film. He works most often in collaboration with the lyricist/book writer Lynn Ahrens. They are best known for writing the Broadway musicals Ragtime, which was nominated for thirteen Tony Awards, two Grammy Awards, and won the Tony for Best Original Score; Once on This Island, which won the Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical, the Olivier Award for London's Best Musical, and was nominated for a Grammy Award and eight Tony Awards; and Seussical, which was nominated for the Grammy Award. Flaherty was also nominated for two Academy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards for his songs and song score for the animated film musical Anastasia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andrew Lippa</span> American composer

Andrew Lippa is an American composer, lyricist, book writer, performer, and producer. He is a resident artist at the Ars Nova Theater in New York City.

Frank Wildhorn is an American composer of both musicals and popular songs. His musical Jekyll & Hyde ran for four years on Broadway. He also wrote the hit song "Where Do Broken Hearts Go" for Whitney Houston.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael John LaChiusa</span> American musical theatre and opera composer (born 1962)

Michael John LaChiusa is an American musical theatre and opera composer, lyricist, and librettist. He is best known for musically esoteric shows such as Hello Again, Marie Christine, The Wild Party, and See What I Wanna See. He was nominated for four Tony Awards in 2000 for his score and book for both Marie Christine and The Wild Party and received another nomination in 1996 for his work on the libretto for Chronicle of a Death Foretold.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Mauceri</span> American conductor, producer, educator and writer

John Francis Mauceri is an American conductor, producer, educator and writer. Since making his professional conducting debut almost half a century ago, he has appeared with most of the world's great orchestras, guest-conducted at the premiere opera houses, produced and musically supervised Tony and Olivier Award-winning Broadway musicals, and served as university faculty and administrator. Through his varied career, he has taken the lead in the preservation and performance of many genres of music and supervised and conducted important premieres by composers as diverse as Debussy, Stockhausen, Korngold, Hindemith, Bernstein, Sibelius, Ives, Elfman and Shore. He is also a leading performer of music banned by the Third Reich and especially music of Hollywood's émigré composers.

David Joel Zippel is an American musical theatre lyricist, director, and producer.

<i>Einsteins Dreams</i> 1992 novel by Alan Lightman

Einstein's Dreams is a 1992 novel by Alan Lightman that was an international bestseller and has been translated into thirty languages. It was runner up for the 1994 L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award. Einstein's Dreams was also the March 1998 selection for National Public Radio's "Talk of the Nation" Book Club. The novel has been used in numerous colleges and universities, in many cases for university-wide adoptions in "common-book" programs. New York Times book critic Michiko Kakutani wrote about the book: "As in Calvino's work, the fantastical elements of the stories are grounded in precise, crystalline prose. As in Jorge Luis Borges's ficciones, carefully observed particulars open out, like doors in an advent calendar, to disclose a magical, metaphysical realm beyond."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Korie</span> American librettist and lyricist

Michael Korie is an American librettist and lyricist whose writing for musical theater and opera includes the musicals Grey Gardens and Far From Heaven, and the operas Harvey Milk and The Grapes of Wrath. His works have been produced on Broadway, Off-Broadway, and internationally. His lyrics have been nominated for the Tony Award and the Drama Desk Award, and won the Outer Critics Circle Award. In 2016, Korie was awarded the Marc Blitzstein Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Lonny Price is an American director, actor, and writer, primarily in theatre. He is best known for his New York directing work, including Sunset Boulevard, Sweeney Todd, Company, and Sondheim! The Birthday Concert. As an actor, he is perhaps best known for his creation of the role of Charley Kringas in the Broadway musical Merrily We Roll Along, Neil Kellerman in Dirty Dancing, and Ronnie Crawford in The Muppets Take Manhattan.

Laurence Crawford "Larry" O'Keefe is an American composer for Broadway musicals, film and television. He won the 2001 Lucille Lortel Award, Outstanding Musical as composer for Bat Boy: The Musical.

Michael John Rupert is an American actor, singer, director and composer. In 1968, he made his Broadway debut in The Happy Time as Bibi Bonnard for which he received a Tony Award nomination and the Theater World Award. Later, he starred as the title role in Pippin for three years on Broadway starting in 1974. He originated the role of Marvin in the William Finn musicals March of the Falsettos, Falsettoland and Falsettos. In 2007, he originated the role of Professor Callahan in the Broadway cast of Legally Blonde. Rupert has been the nominee and recipient of several Tony and Drama Desk awards. He won a Tony for his performance in Sweet Charity in 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tom Kitt (musician)</span> American composer and musician

Thomas Robert Kitt is an American composer, conductor, orchestrator, and musician. For his score for the musical Next to Normal, he shared the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Drama with Brian Yorkey. He has also won two Tony Awards and an Outer Critics Circle Award for Next to Normal, as well as Tony and Outer Critics Circle nominations for If/Then and SpongeBob SquarePants. He has been nominated for eight Drama Desk Awards, winning one, and a Grammy Award for Best Musical Theater Album for Jagged Little Pill in 2021.

Gilles Chiasson is an American producer, director, composer, writer and actor. While he first came to prominence as an actor, particularly in the original cast of the Tony Award and Pulitzer Prize winning RENT, Chiasson went on to work in film and television development, then theater administration and operations, and now works in education. He currently lives in Los Angeles, California, with his wife Sherri Parker Lee and their two sons. He is a theater teacher at a high school in Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angel Lam</span> Hong Kong composer

Angel Lam is a New York-based Hong Kong-born composer and writer. She has composed for artists and ensembles such as Yo-Yo Ma, Aldo Parisot, The Silk Road Ensemble, Atlanta Symphony, Minnesota Orchestra, Hong Kong Arts Festival, Aspen Music Festival and Pacific Music Festival, among others.

César Alvarez is an American composer, lyricist and playwright. César is best known for the musical FUTURITY which they wrote with their band The Lisps. FUTURITY won the Lucille Lortel Award for Outstanding Musical in 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bruce Coughlin</span> American orchestrator and musical arranger

Bruce Coughlin is an American orchestrator and musical arranger. He has won a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award, and an Obie Award.

<i>Fermats Last Tango</i> 2000 off-Broadway musical

Fermat's Last Tango is a 2000 off-Broadway musical about the proof of Fermat's Last Theorem, written by husband and wife Joshua Rosenblum and Joanne Sydney Lessner. The musical presents a fictionalized version of the real life story of Andrew Wiles, and has been praised for the accuracy of the mathematical content. The original production at the York Theatre received mixed reviews, but the musical was well received by mathematical audiences. A video of the original production has been distributed by the Clay Mathematics Institute and shown at several mathematical conferences and similar occasions. The musical has also been translated into Portuguese.

References

  1. ↑ Sommer, Elyse (December 2, 2000). "Fermat's Last Tango, a CurtainUp review". curtainup.com.
  2. ↑ Hampton, Wilborn (December 13, 2000). "You Can Sing That in X, Y and Z". The New York Times .
  3. ↑ Marks, Peter (April 11, 1997). "Three Fools Gear Up for A Letdown". The New York Times .
  4. ↑ Zinoman, Jason (October 29, 2005). "Partisan, Heavy-Handed and Proud of It". The New York Times .
  5. ↑ Blankenship, Mark (October 26, 2005). "Review: Bush is Bad". Variety .
  6. ↑ Morgan, Terry (April 10, 2007). "Review: Bush is Bad in L.A." Variety .
  7. ↑ Smith, Steve (May 16, 2012). "Flexibility is a Good Thing in a Complicated City". The New York Times .
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.