Join the Eastman School of Music and the Beal Institute of Film Music and Contemporary Media on Friday, January 24, 2025, at 7:30 p.m. in Kilbourn Hall to celebrate the career and compositions of esteemed Eastman alumnus Laurence Rosenthal ’47E, ’51E (MM). The concert, titled “Visual Music 7.0,” includes the world premiere performance of “Vienna,” a 30-minute work for strings and harp written by Rosenthal, as well as a live-to-picture staging of the 1928 silent film Laugh, Clown, Laugh, featuring a score of original student compositions.
Rosenthal, who turned 98 in November, will be in attendance while the Empire Film and Media Ensemble performs “Vienna” under the baton of Brett Miller ’24E. Rosenthal will be presented with the Eastman Artist Award following the performance of his piece. This award is bestowed upon individuals who have achieved great success in their chosen field and have demonstrated exceptional commitment to the Eastman School of Music — Rosenthal is only the third person to receive it. “We are honored to have Mr. Rosenthal as our guest for the week,” shares Mark Watters, director of the Beal Institute. “A two-time Oscar-nominated composer, he is truly a legend; the fact that he is an Eastman alum makes it even more exceptional.”
While on campus, Rosenthal will hold small gatherings with Eastman students and faculty, and on Thursday, January 23 the public is invited to attend a lecture/Q&A in Kilbourn Hall at 4:00 p.m. In this forum, he will discuss everything from his early life and education to the start and rise of his career — with emphasis on some of his most celebrated film scores — concluding with time for questions from the audience.
Born in Detroit, Michigan in 1926, Rosenthal came to Rochester at age 17 to study piano and composition at Eastman, earning a bachelor’s and master’s degree during his time here, before moving to Paris to study with Nadia Boulanger, who the New York Times has deemed “music’s greatest teacher.” At the onset of the Korean War, he was enlisted to serve in the United States Air Force and appointed as Staff Composer and leader of the Air Force Symphony Orchestra for four years. Upon his return to civilian life, Rosenthal lived in New York and made frequent visits to Los Angeles, cultivating a vibrant career that led to two Oscar nominations and two Golden Globe nominations, as well as seven Emmy Award wins, with an additional six Emmy nominations. Among his best-known film scores are Becket, Man of La Mancha, A Raisin in the Sun, The Miracle Worker and Clash of the Titans. He also composed ballet music for several Broadway musicals, including The Music Man.
This event is free and open to the public. You may also click here to watch via livestream, starting approximately 15 minutes before the event. Visit Eastman’s News Room to learn more about the full concert.
Media only: Lauren Sageer, Assistant Director of Public Relations and Digital Content,
(585) 451-8492, lsageer@esm.rochester.edu
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About Laurence Rosenthal:
Laurence Rosenthal ’47E, ’51E (MM) was born to immigrant parents in Detroit, Michigan on November 4, 1926. He began studying piano at the age of three, taught by his mother. When he was nine, he played a Mozart piano concerto with orchestra. Later, in his teens, he performed other concertos with orchestra.
In 1944, when he was 17, he enrolled at the Eastman School of Music, double majoring in piano and composition. His piano teachers were the brilliant Hungarian Sandor Vas, and the inspiring Swiss pianist Cecile Staub Genhart. His composition mentors were, among others, Bernard Rogers and Howard Hanson. He also assisted in the Opera Department and finally obtained a bachelor’s and a master’s degree at Eastman.
From there he moved to Paris to study for two years with the renowned Nadia Boulanger. It was a life-changing experience. But his work with her was interrupted by the outburst of the Korean War. At that moment, Rosenthal was in mid-Atlantic, homeward bound to spend the summer with his parents. But he was of an age appropriate for military service and immediately on his arrival in the States, the draft board informed him that return to France in September was out of the question. Military service was the only option.
He decided to enlist in the U.S. Air Force, a four-year hitch. He had discovered that the Air Force had just formed a new unit, the First Documentary Film Squadron. He flew to Washington, found the Commanding Officer, and made a proposal, which the Major enthusiastically accepted. So, Rosenthal enlisted, and after eight weeks of Air Force Basic Training, he was assigned to the Squadron, located near Washington, where he was appointed Staff Composer. Music and life had found a compromise.
Rosenthal had never before composed for film and had to teach himself the entire craft of synchronization, click-tracks, and all the rest. In addition, he had composed only two or three orchestral works and was still a somewhat amateur orchestrator. But he was now given the Air Force Symphony orchestra of 100 musicians to play everything he wrote, offering him the extraordinary experience of learning orchestration with a full orchestra at his disposal, an opportunity almost unimaginable in civilian life. So, for four years he composed countless scores including a full-length documentary, This is Russia, produced for the Air Force by TIME Magazine’s cinematic adjunct, The March of Time.
Upon completion of his military tour of duty in 1955, he moved to New York. Shortly thereafter, an orchestral piece of his, Ode, was premiered by Leonard Bernstein with the New York Philharmonic. He began composing ballet music for several Broadway musicals, including The Music Man, and composed his own musical, Sherry!, also produced on Broadway. He was concurrently composing incidental music for Broadway dramas, such as A Clearing in the Woods, Rashomon, and later for John Osborne’s play, A Patriot for Me. He also collaborated with choreographer Agnes de Mille on a ballet, The Wind in the Mountains for the New York City Ballet.
In 1960 Rosenthal composed his first score for a Hollywood movie, A Raisin in the Sun. Soon after, in New York, he scored The Miracle Worker, Requiem for a Heavyweight, and The Power and the Glory, and then, in London, Becket, Hotel Paradiso, and The Comedians. But soon all film production in New York seemed to move to California and although he continued to live in New York, he was obliged to travel to Los Angeles periodically. There he scored many television plays, as well as feature films in London and Munich, like Clash of the Titans, Rooster Cogburn, The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Return of a Man Called Horse, Brass Target, and, in collaboration with British director Peter Brook, Meetings with Remarkable Men. In the 1990s he composed many episodes for George Lucas’s television series, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles.
Rosenthal has since turned his attention elsewhere. He has composed two operas and a song cycle for mezzo-soprano and ensemble, based on the poetry of Jalaludin Rumi, titled Songs to the Beloved. He has also writtem an Easter cantata set to poems by John Goldsmith, The Stations of the Cross, which was recently premiered in London.
Rosenthal has received two Oscar nominations for Becket and Man of La Mancha, plus two Golden Globe nominations. He has won the Emmy seven times; among the winners were Michelangelo: The Last Giant; Peter the Great; The Bourne Identity; and three episodes of Young Indiana Jones. More recently he has received Lifetime Achievement awards from The Ghent Film Festival’s World Soundtrack in Belgium, and from the Society of Composers and Lyricists in Los Angeles, as well as the ASCAP Life in Music Award, and that of the Film Music Society of Los Angeles. And, finally, the Artists Award of the Eastman School of Music.
Rosenthal has three children and now lives in Switzerland.
About the Beal Institute:
The Beal Institute for Film Music and Contemporary Media at the Eastman School of Music provides students with instruction and experiences that prepare them for the increasingly evolving opportunities to write, produce, and perform music for film and contemporary media. Founded in 2016 by Emmy-winning composer Jeff Beal ’85E and vocalist Joan Beal ’84E, and under the direction of Mark Watters, Emmy Award-winning composer and conductor, the program builds on the film legacy of the school’s founder, George Eastman.
Students in the Beal Institute have opportunities to work with established visiting artists: professional composers, arrangers and musicians who are actively engaged in the film, television and video game industry. Students are also encouraged to collaborate on cross-disciplinary and multi-media projects with other students, faculty members from humanities, composition, and other Eastman departments, community arts organizations, and other area universities. The Institute enhances the graduate degree program in convergent media and film music.
Jeff Beal, who received his Bachelor of Music degree from Eastman with High Distinction in 1985, serves as artistic director of the Institute and continues to be closely involved with the students, faculty, and administration of the school.
About Eastman School of Music:
The Eastman School of Music was founded in 1921 by industrialist and philanthropist George Eastman (1854-1932), founder of Eastman Kodak Company. It was the first professional school of the University of Rochester. Mr. Eastman’s dream was that his school would provide a broad education in the liberal arts as well as superb musical training.
More than 900 students are enrolled in the Collegiate Division of the Eastman School of Music—about 500 undergraduates and 400 graduate students. They come from almost every state, and approximately 23 percent are from other countries. They are taught by a faculty comprised of more than 130 highly regarded performers, composers, conductors, scholars, and educators. They are Pulitzer Prize winners, Grammy winners, Emmy winners, Guggenheim fellows, ASCAP Award recipients, published authors, recording artists, and acclaimed musicians who have performed in the world’s greatest concert halls. Each year, Eastman’s students, faculty members, and guest artists present more than 900 concerts to the Rochester community. Additionally, more than 1,700 members of the Rochester community, from young children through senior citizens, are enrolled in the Eastman Community Music School.
About the University of Rochester:
The University of Rochester is one of the nation’s leading private research universities, one of only 62-member institutions in the Association of American Universities. Located in Rochester, N.Y., the University gives undergraduates exceptional opportunities for interdisciplinary study and close collaboration with faculty through its unique cluster-based curriculum. Its College, School of Arts and Sciences, and Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences are complemented by the Eastman School of Music, Simon School of Business, Warner School of Education, Laboratory for Laser Energetics, School of Medicine and Dentistry, School of Nursing, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, and the Memorial Art Gallery.