Biography

Rob Berman is an Emmy and Grammy Award–winning conductor and music director. For 15 years he was the music director of Encores!, New York City Center’s series of great American musicals in concert, for which he conducted more than 30 productions including the revival of Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine’s Into the Woods, which transferred to a Broadway run and for which he received a Grammy Award as coproducer of the original cast recording. Other Broadway credits include Steve Martin and Edie Brickell’s Bright Star, Dames at Sea, Tuck Everlasting, Wonderful Town, The Pajama Game, Irving Berlin’s White Christmas, and revivals of Finian’s Rainbow, The Apple Tree, and Promises, Promises.

Mr. Berman has conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Barbara Cook, the Pacific Symphony with Kristin Chenoweth, and the Omaha Symphony with Audra McDonald. For nine years he was conductor and music director of the Kennedy Center Honors, for which he won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Direction. He has conducted 15 original cast recordings including the Encores! productions of Paint Your Wagon, Merrily We Roll Along, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. He makes his San Francisco Symphony debut with this performance.