Farrah Rotman (b. 1997) is a transgender composer, lyricist, pianist, writer, and orchestrator based in Brooklyn.
As a musical theatre composer and lyricist, Farrah was the 2020 recipient of Yale University’s highest arts award, the Louis Sudler Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts. She was the inaugural recipient of the SigWorks Signature Theatre/Yale Composer Fellowship in 2019 for her musical Saturdays (with librettist Walker Caplan). With co-orchestrator Daniel Rudin, Farrah produced original cast recordings of Saturdays (under deadname Scott Etan Feiner) and Rumspringa, which are both available on all streaming platforms.
As a classical composer, Farrah has been awarded Yale’s Bach Society Music Prize and Abraham Beekman Cox Prize. She was twice a finalist for the ASCAP Foundation Morton Gould Young Composer Award and the Charles Ives Concert Series. She has also won the Tribeca New Music Competition, the Brian Israel Prize at the Syracuse Society for New Music, the Society for Chamber Music in Rochester Composer Competition, and the Juventas New Music Ensemble Call for Scores. She was a YoungArts winner in 2014 and 2015.
As an aerialist, Farrah has regularly performed at some of New York City’s most prestigious venues, including House of Yes, The Stranger, and The Slipper Room. She specializes in aerial rope, silks, and straps.
As a music director, Farrah has worked on several productions at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University including “The Commedia Project” (dir. Christopher Bayes) and “Bulgaria! Revolt!” She worked as a music assistant on the pre-Broadway production of Frozen the Musical. She was the co-music director of the 2020 Yale Whiffenpoofs and the music director of the 2017 Yale Spizzwinks.
Farrah holds a B.A. in Music & Theatre Studies with honors from Yale University and a diploma in Composition from Juilliard Pre-College.
