Glen Roven

Glen Roven, Emmy Award winner, is a composer, lyricist, conductor, pianist, and CD Producer. He co-created GPRrecords and is now CEO and Artistic Director of Roven Records based in New York City. (www.rovenrecords.com) He composed The Hillary Speeches, (www.thehillaryspeeches.com) a setting of Mrs. Clinton’s speeches that was performed by opera stars Lawrence Brownlee, Isabel Leonard, Nathan Gunn, Matthew Polenzani and 26 more and aired around the world on January 20, 2017 at noon. Current projects include a performance of his "Goodnight Moon" by the National Chorale at Geffen Hall, Lincoln Center, the feature film Humor Me, 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, and a CD and TV show he’s co-producing with Carnegie Hall based on their Lullaby Project with Natalie Merchant, Diane Reeves, Patti LuPone, Joyce DiDonato, Ansel Elgort, Fiona Apple, Rosanne Cash and more. 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 (billholabmusic.com) are routinely performed all around in the world. Mezzo-soprano Isabel Leonard recently premiered a selection of his songs at her Carnegie Hall recital. 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 conceived and produced Poetic License/ 100 Poems 100 Performers where performers including Catherine Zeta-Jones, Patti LuPone, Jason Alexander, Cynthia Nixon, Florence Henderson, among others, read their favorite poem; this album has become the best selling Poetry album of all time. He just released 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; Released for the holidays and already on the best-seller charts is a new musical version of Rob Kapilow's Polar Express sung by Nathan Gunn. Roven Records is also releasing Mr. Kapilow's award winning series, What Makes It Great? He produced William Schimmel's new CD, The Theater of the Accordion with special guest star Wynton Marsalis. 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. Annually, he creates the musical numbers for the American Film Institute Tribute and last year the show won it’s first Emmy for Best Variety Special. He 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. 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. He won his first Emmy for the 1986 Tony Awards Show. He began his TV career working for Alexander H. Cohen, contributing to 4 Tony Shows, 2 Emmys, Happy Birthday, Hollywood (co-produced with Jack Haley, Jr.), The Placido Domingo Special, NBC's 60th Anniversary Special, all three Night of 100 Stars to name a few. For George Schlatter, he won his forth Emmy for SINATRA; 80 Years, His Way; also for Schlatter, he has written and conducted The Sammy Davis 60th Anniversary Tribute, The Richard Pryor Tribute, The Muhammad Ali Tribute, Welcome Home America, The Meaning of Life, The American Television Awards, The Comedy Hall of Fame, SHE-TV (with Carsey-Werner) and the annual American Comedy Awards, The AFI Tribute to Harrison Ford, among others. For Don Mischer, he has conducted the Kennedy Center Honors, the Prime Time Emmys, Bravo’s Tribute to John Travolta and Bravo’s Tribute to Ron Howard, plus the last five AFI Tributes. For Disney Television, he wrote and conceived the musical numbers for the ANIMAL KINGDOM THEME PARK OPENING SPECIAL, MGM/DISNEY Studio Grand Opening, The Grand Opening of Euro/Disney, The Best of Disney’s Music, Disney’s Greatest Hits on Ice (produced by Steve Binder), The Nancy Kerrigan Special, Disney’s Champions on Ice, Melinda, The First Lady of Magic (produced by Steve Binder), Incredible Animal Tales, plus Michelle Kwan’s Ice Special (Steve Binder). Other credits include: The last 10 AFI Tributes, NBC’s CLAY AIKEN CHRISTMAS SPECIAL, with Aiken, Barry Manilow, Megan Mullaley & Yolanda Adams; AFI Tribute to George Lucas; The Presidential Gala at Ford’s Theatre, Leonard Bernstein's 60th Birthday Tribute, We Interrupt This Week, The Ed Sullivan Christmas Special, Elizabeth Taylor’s 60th Birthday Celebration plus many others. He composed all the songs for the Comedy Central Series/RikMil Production, VIVA VARIETY (Emmy Nomination Best Theme). In the corporate world, he routinely does all the music for Steve Wynn and for all of Michael Milken's charitable foundations including his Pancreatic Cancer Research Foundation, his Faster Cures Foundation and for Milken, he created a band of the greatest doctors in the country including Francis Collins, head of the NIH and turned them into the performing sensation, Rock Docs. He was co-executive produce of the Boathouse Venue at the Inaugural season of Mountain Laurel Center for the Performing Arts. He has contributed to the book Games We Played, published by Simon and Schuster and the London and New York City editions of City Secrets. He regularly writes about the arts for the New York Times, the LA Review of Books, Broadwayworld.com and has a column in the Huffington Post. He is on the board of the Phoenix Concert Series which specializes in commissioning new works and also the Olga Forrai Foundation which encourages classical singers with grants.