Department of Music

Nancy Rosenberg’s career encompasses a wide range of musical pursuits. She received her A.B. in Music & Comparative Literature from Brown University, holds an M.A. in Musicology from Boston University, and earned a Doctorate in Music Education from Boston University in 2010. She has taught in Brown’s Applied Music program in Voice since 1995, specializing in jazz and popular styles; additionally, she taught classes in Musicianship and Music Theory at Brown until 2001, when she left to pursue an interest in public school secondary music education. For several years Dr. Rosenberg taught Music at urban high schools in Boston and Providence, while maintaining an active freelance career as a composer, musical director, vocalist, and teacher. In addition to her role as Voice faculty at Brown, she currently serves as resident Music Director at Roger Williams University, where she also teaches courses in Musical Theater and The Art of Rock & Roll.

A prolific composer of music for theater, Ms. Rosenberg’s credits include five full length musicals, and twelve musical plays for children, including The Sun’s Musicians, a winner of the Kennedy Center’s New Visions/New Voices awards in children’s theater. In addition to her musical work in and around the theater, she has served as composer, sound designer, arranger, and producer on numerous commercial projects for children, among them a book/CD set for Kindermusik, as well as various best-selling children’s software titles, such as The Three Grouchketeers, Elmo Through the Looking Glass, Sesame Street Music Maker, and Elmo’s Adventures in Grouchland. Recent choral compositions include “Eagle Song,” with lyrics by poet Joy Harjo, commissioned by and premiered at the First Unitarian Church of Providence in April, 2022. Dr. Rosenberg’s academic writings include the article, “Bach, Beck, and Bjork Walk into a Bar: Approaching Popular Music Harmony in the Traditional Music Theory Classroom,” (The Journal of Music Theory Pedagogy, Vol. 27, 2015), and “Integrating Popular Music into the Music Theory Classroom: Rhythm and Meter (in Pop Culture Pedagogy in the Music Classroom, ed. Nicole Biamonte, Scarecrow Press, 2010).