MICHAEL ROSENZWEIG (1951), composer and conductor, was born in South Africa. His participation in South African student politics in the 1970s compelled him to leave the country. He pursued his musical education in the United Kingdom and the USA and has lived in the UK since 1979. Michael Rosenzweig is acclaimed as one of the few notable students of both Jack Beeson, the only American to study composition with Bartok, and of Chou Wen-chung, the editor of French-born American composer Edgard Varese’s scores. He studied with both of them while on full scholarship and stipend from Columbia University’s doctoral programme.
His compositions have been internationally praised and widely recognised as of exceptional magnitude, garnering several major and international awards including the prestigious DAAD Berliner Kunstlerprogramm Award in 1990. His Symphony in One Movement performed by the RLPO. His Elegy for String Orchestra, Sinfonietta One were performed by the London Sinfonietta, and Concerto for String Orchestra were broadcast by BBC Radio 3. His 1989 String Quartet Two, recorded by the Arditti Quartet in June 1995, was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 in early 2009.
Orchestras Maestro Rosenzweig has conducted include the English Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, Moravian Philharmonic, Slovak State Philharmonic, Sudety Philharmonic, State Philharmonic of Iaşi, Vidin State Philharmonic and the Royal Oman Symphony Orchestra.
Soloists he has accompanied Include Pavel Minev, with whom he has recorded, Gervase de Peyer (conducting the European premiere of his edition of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto), Yonty Solomon, and Borislava Taneva and the oboist Neil Black.
He has been Principal Guest Conductor of Sinfonietta Vidin since 2008.
