NATALIE TENENBAUM (@NatalieTenenbaum) is a composer, pianist, music producer/director and singer-songwriter, recognized equally on the stages of Carnegie Hall, SXSW and Broadway for “sparkling… consistently invigorating” (The New York Times) performances. A graduate of The Juilliard School, Tenenbaum breaks the boundaries between classical composition, popular storytelling, and improvisational jazz to create acoustic and electro-acoustic concert music for a wide scope of ensembles, soloists, organizations and artistic disciplines.
Based in New York, Tenenbaum has appeared with orchestras in Israel, Europe, Asia and the U.S., premiering her own compositions and real-time composition/improvisations in concert in venues such as The Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, Madison Square Garden, The Apollo Theater, Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Jazz at Lincoln Center, The Blue Note, The National Arts Gallery (NY), Harvard University, Austin’s SXSW, Jerusalem Music Center, Berlin’s Konzerthaus, Korea’s National Theater, and the Monk to Bach jazz club in Seoul, among many others.
In 2022, Tenenbaum created arrangements and orchestrations for Lang Lang’s most recent album release with London’s Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (Universal Media Group/Deutsche Grammophon/Disney) and composed an original work for Lang Lang and Pentatonix. Other collaborations include duos with Eitan Kenner and Julian “J3PO” Pollack; plus music direction for Titus Burgess, Lea Michele, The 8-Bit Big Band and Tori Kelly (for the 2020 Tree Lighting at Rockefeller Center) along with many others. She has been featured in NBC’s Maya & Marty as associate Music Director, performing with guests such as Maya Rudolph, Martin Short, Steve Martin, Emma Stone, Kenan Thompson, and Nick Jonas.
As a follow-up to her 2023 album Duos/Solos with Eitan Kenner (La Reserve Records), Tenenbaum is due to release her second album Standard Repertoire Vol. 1 on Platoon. This post-classical album features original music, sound design, and reimaginings of works by Bach, Stravinsky, Debussy, Liszt and others.
Active in the new music scene, Tenenbaum has performed as a soloist and collaborator with various musicians and ensembles, including Jason Eckardt and AUDITIVOKKAL DRESDEN. She premiered her piece for two pianos, Ra’ash, with fellow pianist and composer Julian Pollack in NYC and at the Mendocino Music Festival. She has also recorded arrangements and original music for the Steinway Spirio R piano catalog.
On Broadway, Tenenbaum has created arrangements for Tina Fey’s musical, Mean Girls, and worked with David Byrne on American Utopia (2021-2022). She co-wrote the scores for theatrical pieces Juliet & Juliet (York Theater, NY) and Little Black Dress (US & Canada Tour, 2018-2020) as well as writing and performing the original score for John Guare’s play, More Stars Than There Are In Heaven (2016) at the Tennessee Williams festival in Provincetown, MA. Her score for the staged adaptation of Benjamin Button (in collaboration with librettist and lyricist Brett Boles) was performed in 2013 as part of the Fundamental Theater Project and workshopped in London in 2019 at the Southwark Playhouse.
Tenenbaum was honored with both the Harrington Award and the Jean Banks Award from BMI. In 2014, she was awarded membership to the BMI Lehman-Engle Advanced Workshop. Her catalog of works is represented through ASCAP.
Natalie Tenenbaum is a Nord Artist and a Yamaha Artist, and has also created music internationally licensed for use by Walmart.