Judd Greenstein was born and raised in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City, where he began his compositional life by writing hip hop beats as a teenager. His concert works reflect those origins, as well as his traditional piano background, combining an urban, beat-oriented sensibility with a late Romantic classical harmonic language. He has received degrees from Williams College and the Yale School of Music, has been a Fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and the Bang on a Can Summer Institute of Music, and is currently a fourth-year doctoral Fellow and Taplin Scholar at Princeton University, where he is writing a dissertation on hip hop music. In addition to his many compositions for NOW Ensemble, in which he is a composer and founding member, Judd writes music for a wide variety of ensembles and performers around the country. Recent commissions include those from Present Music, the Seattle Chamber Players, soprano Anne-Carolyn Bird, flutist Alex Sopp, violist Nadia Sirota, percussionist Sam Solomon, cellist/vocalist Jody Redhage, and the Williams College Concert Choir. Judd is also active as a promoter of new music in New York City, co-directing New Amsterdam Records, an independent record label serving the emerging new music community of New York City; and Free Speech Zone Productions, a presenting organization focused on music related to issues of social justice and political concerns. As a solo artist, he recently performed as part of the Green Beat Box at Monkeytown, and will make appearances this summer at festivals in Seattle, WA and Wassaic, NY.
