Glen Roven, Emmy Award winner, is a composer, lyricist, conductor, pianist, and CD Producer. He is Artistic Director of Roven Records based in New York City.
He composed The Hillary Speeches, a setting of Mrs. Clinton’s speeches performed by opera stars Lawrence Brownlee, Isabel Leonard, Nathan Gunn, Matthew Polenzani, Patrcia Racette, and 26 others which aired around the world on January 20, 2017 at noon.
Current projects include a recital in London of all his music, November 22, a world premier performance (and recording) of his Second Symphony at Geffen Hall (April 13, 2018) and new song Cycle at Carnegie Hall (May 22, 2018) plus the release of SPECTRUM, a collection of his music composed over the last ten years. He is producing, a CD with Universal Music and Carnegie Hall based on their Lullaby Project with Natalie Merchant, Diane Reeves, Patti LuPone, Joyce DiDonato, Pretty Yende, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Fiona Apple, Rosanne Cash and more. He was also hired to create the core Poetry curriculum for the entire public school system in the US K-6, in English as well as Spanish in association with Benchmark Publishing. Last season saw the premier of his “Goodnight Moon” by the National Chorale at Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, and the feature film Humor Me. He 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.
Roven made his Carnegie Hall debut conducting his Violin Concerto based on Margaret Wise Brown’s famous children’s book, 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. Baritone Mark Stone performed an entire evening of Roven’s concert music also at Carnegie Hall. His 29 Song Cycles and Art Songs are routinely performed all around in the world. Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard and Daniel Okuilitch also premiered a selection of his songs at Carnegie Hall recitals. 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 was chosen to conduct four Presidential Inaugural Concerts, as well as America’s Millennium Celebration, produced by Steven Spielberg.
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; In addition to appearing hundreds of times on television, he has written 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 and many others. He conducted Frank Sinatra’s last concert on television and Sammy Davis’s final television appearance.