Pianist, conductor, and music director Adam Rothenberg is a versatile young artist who has performed throughout North America and Europe in a wide array of projects, including chamber music, orchestral concerts, opera, and musical theatre. He recently conducted the Broadway revival of Sweeney Todd, after serving as the Assistant Conductor of the Broadway revival of Company and the Associate Conductor of the national tour of Miss Saigon, where he performed at the Kennedy Center Opera House in Washington, D.C. Equally at home in a Broadway pit as he is on the cabaret stage, he has served as pianist/music director for such luminaries as Patti LuPone, Josh Groban, Bernadette Peters, and Matt Doyle. This fall, he will conduct the world premiere of Watch Night, the inaugural opera to be presented at the newly built Perelman Arts Center at the World Trade Center.
Hailed by Opera News as a pianist of “jaw-dropping virtuosity,” Adam is passionate about pushing the boundaries of classical music and bridging the gap with other genres and art forms. He has performed in orchestral concerts with the New York Philharmonic and the Juilliard Orchestra, as well as art song recitals at Caramoor with the New York Festival of Song and at Tanglewood, where he was a two-time Vocal Piano Fellow. He recently performed at Alice Tully Hall with soprano Mikaela Bennett in a recital that included classical art song, jazz standards, and a world premiere by singer-songwriter Gabriel Kahane. Other recital highlights include a program with violinist Chelsea Starbuck Smith as part of the Charles Ives Music Festival in Danbury, CT that explored the relationship between folk music and classical works, including several original arrangements. As a composer, he has been commissioned by the YES Theatre in Sudbury, Ontario to write the score for renewal, a new musical theatre piece that addresses communal response to the climate crisis, in collaboration with playwright Heesun Hwang.
A native of Syracuse, NY, Adam holds a bachelor’s degree in Piano Performance and Mathematics from Northwestern University, and a master’s degree in Collaborative Piano from the Juilliard School, where he was the proud recipient of a Kovner Fellowship.