Joshua Rosenblum

JOSHUA ROSENBLUM received his B.A. in music summa cum laude from Yale College and his M.M. in Piano Performance from the Yale School of Music. He has taught Composing for Musical Theater as part of the Shen Curriculum in the Yale Department of Music since the inception of the program in 2006. He has also taught conducting at New York University since 2019.

Rosenblum wrote music and lyrics for the cult hit musical Fermat’s Last Tango, which had a critically acclaimed off-Broadway production at the York Theatre Company in 2000 and spawned both CD and DVD recordings. He is also the composer and creator of Bush Is Bad, the hit off-Broadway musical revue, which Variety called “a sensation.” Other works for the theater include The Joy of Going Somewhere Definite (Atlantic Theater Company), The Haunted Hotel (Signature Theater) and Garbo and Me (Royal Central School for Speech and Drama). His off-Broadway musical Einstein’s Dreams, based on the best-selling novel by Alan Lightman, was nominated for four Drama Desk Awards, including Outstanding Music and Lyrics.

For the concert hall, Rosenblum has written pieces for trumpeter Philip Smith of the New York Philharmonic, flutist Kathleen Nester of the New Jersey Symphony, Manhattan School of Music faculty trombonist Haim Avitsur, French hornist Eric Ruske, the Herrick Trio, and the ground-breaking string quartet Ethel, among others. Recordings of his instrumental music include Impetuosities—Music of Joshua Rosenblum, and Sundry Notes, both available from Albany Records. Rosenblum has won awards from ASCAP and the Meet the Composer Foundation, and his music, including his prize-winning choral setting of Jabberwocky, is published by the Theodore Presser Co.

As conductor, Rosenblum has led the orchestras for fourteen Broadway and Off-Broadway shows.  Other conducting credits include guest appearances with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, the Brooklyn Philharmonic, and the American Repertory Ballet. He has also conducted world premiere productions for the Metropolitan Opera Guild, the B.A.M. Next Wave Festival, Playwrights Horizons, and Lincoln Center Theater, as well as the soundtracks to six major motion pictures. 

As a music journalist, Rosenblum has contributed articles to Newsday and Stagebill, as well as over 800 CD and concert reviews for Opera News.  He is the author of the forthcoming book Closer Than Ever: The Unique Six-Decade Songwriting Partnership of Richard Maltby, Jr. and David Shire, published by Oxford University Press.

Rosenblum lives in New York City with his wife, singer and author Joanne Lessner, and is the proud father of Julian (Yale, 2018) and Phoebe (University of Miami’s Frost School of Music, 2023).