Joshua Rosenblum is a conductor, composer, pianist, educator, and music journalist. He has conducted thirteen Broadway and Off-Broadway shows, with a specialty in flying vehicles (Miss Saigon, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, Dr. Seuss’ How the Grinch Stole Christmas). He is also the founder and music director of the Pit Stop Players, a New York-based chamber ensemble for contemporary music. In writing about the group in the New York Times, Steve Smith cited “the broad experience of its founder, Joshua Rosenblum, [whose] imagination, flexibility, and nerdy wit lend themselves to playfully cohesive programs.” For NYU Steinhardt, Rosenblum conducted the highly acclaimed production of Gypsy in fall 2019 and a Zoom-conceived version of Cosi fan Tutte, scheduled for streaming in fall 2021. Rosenblum has served as guest conductor for the Brooklyn Philharmonic, the New Jersey Symphony, and the American Repertory Ballet, among others. He has also conducted world premiere productions for Lincoln Center Theater, the Metropolitan Opera Guild, the American Music Theater Festival, and Playwrights Horizons, as well as the soundtracks to numerous major motion pictures.
As a composer, Rosenblum is equally at home in the realms of concert music and musical theatre. His musical Einstein’s Dreams, for which he wrote music, lyrics, and orchestrations, had its Off-Broadway debut in 2019 and received four Drama Desk nominations. His musical Garbo and Me, based on the life of legendary screen actress Greta Garbo, will receive its world premiere production in London in fall 2021 at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Both musicals were written in collaboration with his wife, author, and librettist Joanne Sydney Lessner. Rosenblum is also the composer/lyricist of the hit satirical revue Bush is Bad, which ran for a year and a half at New York City’s Triad Theater, and which Variety described as “a sensation.” Two collections of Rosenblum’s instrumental and vocal music are available on the Albany Records label.
As a pianist, Rosenblum has appeared with the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall, with the Encores! Orchestra at City Center, and in solo and chamber recitals at Symphony Space. In addition to his conducting classes at NYU Steinhardt, he also teaches musical theatre composition at Yale, where he earned both BA (summa cum laude) and MM degrees. As a music journalist, he has written over 700 reviews and feature articles for Opera News, Newsday, and other publications. He is currently working on a book about director/lyricist Richard Maltby, Jr. and composer David Shire, the Broadway songwriting team.