Ted Rosenthal

Acclaimed jazz pianist Ted Rosenthal has served as a member of the Manhattan School of Music Jazz Arts faculty since 1999 and the School’s Board of Trustees since 2011. One of the leading jazz pianists of his generation, Mr. Rosenthal has been described as “a pianist of rarest skill” (Los Angeles Times). Winner of the 1988 Thelonious Monk International Jazz Piano Competition, he actively tours worldwide with his trio and as a soloist and has performed with jazz greats such as Gerry Mulligan, Art Farmer, Phil Woods, Bob Brookmeyer, and James Moody.

Mr. Rosenthal has released fifteen CDs as a leader. His 2014 release, Ted Rosenthal Trio: Rhapsody in Gershwin, was included in three publications’ Top 10 lists for the year. Out of This World(2011) reached No. 1 on the jazz radio charts. His 2010 CD, Impromptu, was praised as “a session that once again shows Rosenthal to be among the most creative musicians in the mainstream” (AllAboutJazz). Mr. Rosenthal’s solo album, The 3 B’s, received four stars from DownBeat magazine. It features renditions of the music of Bud Powell and Bill Evans and improvisations on Beethoven themes. His CD Wonderland(2013) was featured as a New York Times holiday pick.

Mr. Rosenthal has also performed with Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, the Vanguard Jazz Orchestra, and Jon Faddis and the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band. He is the pianist of choice for many top jazz vocalists, including Helen Merrill, Ann Hampton Callaway, and Barbara Cook. He appeared on Marian McPartland’s Piano Jazz on National Public Radio and performed with David Sanborn on NBC’s Night Music. Mr. Rosenthal’s orchestral performances include solo and featured appearances with the Detroit Symphony, the Boston Pops, the Baltimore Symphony, the Kansas City Symphony, the Rochester Philharmonic, the Tucson Symphony, the Pittsburgh Symphony, and the Fort Worth Symphony.

A recipient of three grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, Mr. Rosenthal regularly performs and records his compositions, which include jazz tunes and large-scale works. He has also composed music for dance, including Uptown for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater. The Survivor, a concerto for piano and orchestra, has been performed by the Manhattan Jazz Philharmonic and the Rockland Symphony Orchestra, with Mr. Rosenthal at the piano. In 2011, Mr. Rosenthal premiered his second jazz piano concerto, Jazz Fantasy, with the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony in New York City.

Mr. Rosenthal received his Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from Manhattan School of Music. He is also a member of Juilliard’s faculty and presents jazz clinics throughout the world. He was a contributing editor for Piano and Keyboardmagazine and has published piano arrangements and feature articles for Piano Today, The Piano Stylist, and The Juilliard Journal.