Jake Landau is an American composer of opera, musical theater, ballet, and instrumental music. His works have been performed by the New York Philharmonic, Houston Grand Opera, and Premiere Division Ballet in venues as diverse as Carnegie Hall, Birdland Jazz Club, and the Royal Palace of Amsterdam. Select works of his have been published by G. Schirmer (Ayres, for SA and piano) and Edition Peters (Hardware Love, for orchestra).

Recent significant premieres include Landau’s first opera, Pietà, which debuted in an innovative film format documenting the show’s delayed opening due to Covid and subsequent reading in New York. Filmed in 2020, Pietàwent on to win the “Best Music Documentary” laurels at such festivals as The People’s Film Festival, RAGFF New York City, and Malabar Music Festival. The full production of Pietà was mounted in 2021 at The Narnia Festival in Italy with the composer conducting from the piano. His second opera, a companion piece to Purcell’s Dido & Aeneas titled & Aeterna, premiered at the same festival the following year. The opera uniquely combines period performance practice with contemporary compositional ideas, built on a libretto by Landau’s frequent collaborator Emily Garber. [read more...]