Faculty

Steve Rothstein is active as a composer, music instructor and lecturer in the Los Angeles area. He received his doctoral degree in Music Composition from the University of California, Los Angeles (2006) where he also completed his master’s and bachelor’s degrees. Rothstein has written numerous works for orchestra, chamber ensembles, wind ensemble, choral groups and art songs. His works have been performed by the American Youth Symphony, UCLA Philharmonia, UC Irvine Symphony, Redlands Symphony, Riverside Philharmonic, Bratislava Studio Symphony and New York Master Chorale. In 2008, his oratorio Hymn of Light received its international premiere in China.

Interest in Judaic music led Rothstein to study at the Brandeis-Bardin Collegiate Institute (1996), and then onto a one-year study abroad program at the World Union of Jewish Students (WUJS) in Arad, Israel (2000-2001). He currently serves as the artistic director of the Judaic Sacred Music Foundation where he was commissioned to compose Symphony No. 1 JUDAICA (Days of Awe), a four-movement symphony utilizing liturgical melodies and motives derived from the Jewish High Holy Days services. The symphony has been fully recorded with the Bratislava Studio Orchestra in Slovakia and also received its live world premiere in the fall of 2022 with the Riverside Philharmonic Orchestra in California.

As a professor, Rothstein has lectured on a wide range of musical subjects: music fundamentals, diatonic and chromatic harmony, 20th century techniques, modal and tonal counterpoint, form and analysis, style-composition, aural skills, orchestration, film score analysis and composition. He has taught at Los Angeles Valley College, Santa Monica College, the Bob Cole Conservatory of Music at California State University, Long Beach, and California State University, Dominguez Hills. He has also lectured for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Adult Outreach Program. He currently teaches at Santa Monica Community College and in UCLA Extension’s prestigious Film Scoring program where he won the 2013 Distinguished Instructor Award.