Joshua Rosenblum

Joshua Rosenblum (born May 10, 1963) is an American composer, conductor, pianist, arranger, and music journalist. He has composed extensively for the concert hall as well as for musical theatre, and currently teaches "Composition of Musical Theatre I" at Yale University, his alma mater. As a pianist, he performs frequently in the New York City area as soloist and accompanist, as well as in Broadway pit orchestras. He has conducted numerous Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, including How the Grinch Stole Christmas!, Wonderful Town, Falsettos, Miss Saigon, and Anything Goes. He and his wife, Joanne Sydney Lessner, live in New York City with their two children, Julian (b. 1996) and Phoebe (b. 2001).

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. 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.

Musical theatre

Rosenblum composed the score for the Off-Broadway show Fermat's Last Tango, and he is the creator and composer/lyricist of Bush Is Bad.

Other musical theatre pieces include Einstein's Dreams (based on the best-selling novel by Alan Lightman), which had its international premiere at Teatro da Trindade in Lisbon, and Arabian Nights. Both works, as well as Fermat's Last Tango, were written in collaboration with Rosenblum’s wife, an author, librettist, and singer, Joanne Sydney Lessner. Rosenblum and Lessner have a new musical in development which is based on the life of screen legend Greta Garbo.

Fermat's Last Tango

Fermat's Last Tango (2000) is a musical written by Rosenblum and his wife, Joanne Sydney Lessner, that is based on the true story of Princeton professor Andrew Wiles' proof of Fermat's Last Theorem.^[1] It debuted at the York Theater in New York and went on to perform internationally in Portugal.^[2] The musical achieved cult hit status, and is available on DVD from the Clay Mathematics Institute.

Bush Is Bad

Rosenblum's Off-Broadway hit satirical musical revue Bush Is Bad debuted at The Triad Theatre on September 29, 2005, and went on to have other iterations all across the United States.^[3] It received outstanding reviews from The New York Times, Variety, and numerous other sources. In its original iteration, it starred Kate Baldwin, Michael McCoy, and Neal Mayer, who each portrayed various figures in the Bush administration.^[3]

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 plays mostly contemporary music, including Rosenblum’s own compositions, from a wide variety of genres.

Music journalism

Rosenblum contributes concert and CD reviews to Opera News magazine on a regular basis. He has also written for Newsday, Stagebill, and The Charleston Post and Courier (as Overview Critic for the Spoleto Festival USA).

References

1. ↑ http://www.simonsingh.net/Fermats_Last_Tango.html
2. ↑ Singh, Simon. "Fermat's Last Tango". simonsingh.net. Retrieved 26 November 2010. 
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 http://www.robertaonthearts.com/id508.html

External links

• Joshua Rosenblum at the Internet Off-Broadway Database (Lortel Archives)