Keren Rosenbaum

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Composer | Conductor | Performer | Educator | Researcher | Group Facilitator

 

Keren Rosenbaum is an interdisciplinary composer and educator whose work brings music, listening, communication, sensory perception, and playfulness into new forms of creative and relational practice.

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For more than thirty years, her artistic and educational practice has investigated how people create meaning together through sound, movement, sensation, rhythm, and relational participation. Beginning as a composer and performer, Rosenbaum developed Reflexive Music, an interdisciplinary musical concept rooted in her own synesthetic experience and dedicated to expanding the relationship between composer, performer, audience, and environment.

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Rosenbaum began her musical studies at the age of seven, developing a multidisciplinary foundation in composition, flute, cello, conducting, electronic music, and music education. She studied at the Tel Aviv Academy of Music, the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague, and Brooklyn College of Music in New York, where she earned her M.A. in Composition. Her teachers included, to name a few, Lev Kogan, Yossi Arnheim, Arie Shapira, Louis Andriessen, Gilius van Bergeijk, Richard DeMan, Diderik Wagenaar, Clarence Barlow, Amnon Wolman, and Tania León.

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In 1999, she founded the REFLEX Ensemble, an international community of musicians and artists dedicated to the creation and performance of Reflexive Music. Her compositions, performances, and contemporary notation systems—including her conducting-via-earphones technique featured in Notations21 by Theresa Sauer—have been presented internationally and are known for their immersive and participatory qualities.

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Over time, Reflexive Music evolved into Reflexive Music Practice, extending musical principles beyond performance into everyday interaction. This work led to the development of Reflexive Listening Practice, a structured approach for cultivating awareness of sound, movement, rhythm, sensation, and relational dynamics.

Building on this foundation, Rosenbaum developed Reflexive Communication, the application of Reflexive Listening Practice to teach and strengthen multisensory coordination in communication. Through Reflexive Communication, participants learn to attend to verbal, nonverbal, paraverbal, sensory, emotional, and relational dimensions of interaction simultaneously.

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These developments eventually gave rise to The Playground Approach (ALP) — Active / Attune Listening Playground — an interdisciplinary framework and methodology that integrates Reflexive Music Practice, Reflexive Listening Practice, Reflexive Communication, and playfulness into practical tools for education, therapy, community development, artistic practice, family life, and organizational culture.

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In 2013, Rosenbaum founded the Composing Community Global Organization (CCGO), home to Reflexive Music Practice and The Playground Approach (ALP). Through CCGO she has developed and supervised projects in schools, universities, refugee camps, post-conflict communities, arts institutions, community organizations, and workplace environments throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and North America.

Her collaborations include Musicians Without Borders (MWB), UNESCO, WE-ACT, EU, the Peace Corps, Goethe Institute, Al Akhawayn University, the Arts University Helsinki, Tel Aviv University, Chelsea Art Museum, Streaming Museum, and numerous educational, therapeutic, and community organizations worldwide.

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Since 2021, Rosenbaum has collaborated with the Felicia Blumental Center for the Art of Sound in Tel Aviv, leading research, seminars, educational programs, and community initiatives that explore The Playground Approach (ALP) as an evolving model of music pedagogy and participatory learning.

Her recent work focuses on adapting The Playground Approach (ALP) for neurodivergent individuals and people on the autism spectrum. Working alongside educators, therapists, families, and community leaders, she develops practical applications that support communication, co-regulation, creative expression, and interpersonal connection through multisensory participation, coordination and playfulness.

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Rosenbaum currently conducts research on The Playground Approach (ALP) and teaches an academic course at the University of Haifa, where she trains educators and therapists in applying Reflexive Listening Practice and Reflexive Communication across therapeutic, educational, and developmental settings. Together with Miriam Ben Oz, MSW, a psychotherapist and leader in professional supervision, she is further developing the theoretical and research foundations of The Playground Approach, exploring its applications in education, therapy, and community engagement, with a focus on communication, inclusion, creative participation, multisensory listening, and human connection.

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At the center of Rosenbaum’s work is the belief that communication is not limited to language. Through Reflexive Music, Reflexive Listening Practice, Reflexive Communication, and The Playground Approach (ALP), she continues to explore how attune listening and playfulness can foster creativity, connection, resilience, and social transformation.