Glen Roven obit

Composer, Conductor and Producer Glen Roven Passes Away at Age 60

 

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Two-time Emmy Award winning composer, lyricist, conductor, pianist, and producer Glen Roven, has passed away at the age of 60.

A funeral will be held for Roven this week in New York City, with a memorial tribute is being planned for this fall.

Roven was a veteran of the music and entertainment industry. He wrote songs for, conducted and produced for Julie Andrews, Melissa Etheridge, Aretha Franklin, Leon Fleisher, Kenny G., Whitney Houston, Dick Hyman, Michael Jackson, Quincy Jones, Kermit the Frog, Patti LaBelle, Liza Minnelli, Diana Ross, Paul Shaffer, Martin Short, TRAIN among others.

He conducted Frank Sinatra's last concert on television and Sammy Davis's final television appearance, as well as four presidential inaugurations.

Roven began his Broadway career as a rehearsal pianist for Pippin while still in high school, and at nineteen was the musical director of Sugar Babies on Broadway.

He also wrote the scores for John Guare's, Lydie Breeze and Gardenia, Christopher Isherwood's A Meeting By the River and Larry Gelbart's Mastergate, plus was a contributing composer to A...My Name is Alice. He wrote the score for the musical adaptation of The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T, which was aimed for Broadway in the early 2000s.

His musical Norman's Ark, played the Ford Theater in LA, directed by Peter Schneider with a cast of 200. His first musical, Heart's Desire, written with Armistead Maupin, played the Cleveland Playhouse and a one night gala at the Shaftesbury Theater in London.

According to his bio, he was at work on a new movie-musical for Dolly Parton on Netflix and had just completed, a new symphony "Symphony of Songs", a new opera, Addressee Unknown, a new Broadway Musical, World War Me, producing an all-Verdi aria CD for Hui He and SONY, recorded live in Verona.

He was the creator and Artistic Director of RovenRecords. He produced "Hopes and Dreams" a CD with Universal and Carnegie Hall based on their Lullaby Project with Catherine Zeta-Jones, Natalie Merchant, Diane Reeves, Patti LuPone, Joyce DiDonato, Fiona Apple, Rosanne Cash, Natalie Merchant, Dianne Reeves, and more: the CD hit Number 1 on both the Amazon Classical Chart and Pop Chart.

Roven composed "The Hillary Speeches," a setting of Mrs. Clinton's speeches performed by opera stars Lawrence Brownlee, Isabel Leonard, Nathan Gunn, Matthew Polenzani and 26 others which aired around the world on January 20, 2017.

Roven made his Carnegie Hall debut conducting his Violin Concerto based on The Runaway Bunny, with Glenn Close and the American Symphony Orchestra; Catherine Zeta-Jones recorded the Piano Trio Version. He also recorded the piece with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Brooke Shields for Sony/BMG.

His 36 Song Cycles and Art Songs are routinely performed all around in the world. He has conducted the National Symphony, the Seattle Symphony, the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, The Munich Philharmonic, The Radio Luxembourg Orchestra, as well as many others, and made his Israeli conducting debut in 2001 conducting the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in two sold-out concerts honoring Leonard Bernstein.

He co-produced An AIDS Quilt Songbook: Sing for Hope, an all-star CD benefiting amfAR featuring Joyce DiDonato, Jamie Barton, Isabel Leonard, Matthew Polenzani, Susanne Phillips Yo-Yo Ma, Ansel Elgort, Sharon Stone and more.

As a CD producer, Roven produced (for GPRrecords) : Jason Alexander, Christine Baranski, Thomas Bagwell, Jamie Barton, Charles Busch, Ann Hampton Callaway, Charles Castronovo, Tom Cipullo, Alan Cumming, Tyne Daly, Joyce DiDonato, Michael Douglas, Nathan Gunn, Lauren Flanigan, Leon Fleisher, Andrew Garland, David Garrison, Joanna Gleason, Ricky Ian Gordon, Joel Grey, Daron Hagen, Dick Hyman, Jake Heggie, Florence Henderson, Rob Kapilow, Barry Humphries, Isabel Leonard, Lowell Liebermann, Wynton Marsalis, Jorge Martín, Susanne Mentzer, Patti LuPone, Gilda Lyons, Kate Mulgrew, Cynthia Nixon, Daniel Okulitch, Chris Parker, Patricia Racette, Chris Sarandon, Paul Shaffer, William Schimmel, Noah Stewart, Paulo Szot, Talise Trevigne, Kathleen Turner, Catherine Zeta-Jones and many others.

As a translator, Roven has translated all three DaPonte/Mozart Operas: Figaro, Cosi and Don Giovanni. He translated Mahler's Ruckert Lieder, Songs of a Wayfarer, Kindertotenlieder and Des Knaben Wunderhorn. He has also translated Schubert's Wintereisse and all of Hugo Wolf's Italian Songbook.

For children, Roven produced the Sharon, Lois & Bram album, Candles, Snow and Mistletoe (1993), which was also at the Palace Theatre, New York City. He also wrote the theme the 1990 television series The Baby-Sitters Club.

Roven served as a contributing author to the books Games We Play, published by Simon & Schuster, and City Secrets. He has written articles for The New York Times, The LA Review of Books, Broadwayworld.com and many more.

Roven and Marc Shaiman appeared together as the two News Theme Writers in James L. Brooks's Broadcast News.