Michael Rosenzweig, born 1951 in Cape Town, South Africa, is a composer, conductor, choral trainer and director, multi-instrumentalist and jazz musician.
Education
Merton Barrow provided him a thorough practical grounding as a performer. He then studied composition with Donald Martino at New England Conservatory of Music as a guitarist specialising in jazz, later studying at Columbia University.
Conducting
While assistant at the Berliner Konzertchor, he was music director of their youth choir. He conducted their Berlin Philharmonie debut. He conducted the Blacher Ensemble, the new music ensemble from the Berlin Hochschule der Kunste in their international venue debut. He also conducted Sinfonietta Berlin, his own chamber orchestra in major venues and festivals. The orchestra performed both standard repertoire and contemporary music, including premieres of his own music.
In Central and Eastern Europe he has conducted the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra, the Bulgarian National Radio Symphony Orchestra, Moravian Philharmonic, the Slovak State Philharmonic, Sudecka Philharmonic in Wałbrzych, Poland, the State Philharmonic of Iaşi and Vidin State Philharmonic among others. He has also conducted the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra.
Composition
His awards for composition include the Greater London Arts Council Young Composer's Award and the Gaudeamus Foundation, won two years running, coming both first and second in the first year. He held the DAAD Berliner Kunstlerprogramm Fellowship for music in 1990. He received this award at age 39. He was the youngest recipient of this award.
Works have been commissioned by the BBC, the London Sinfonietta, the Divertimenti String Orchestra, and Nina Beilina.
Rosenzweig's String Quartet No. 2 (1989) was commissioned in October 1988, by the BBC for the Arditti Quartet and delivered in April 1989. It was first performed and recorded in June 1995, and broadcast by the BBC Radio 3 on 3 January 2009 .