Stuart Rosenberg

In his lifelong music career, multi-instrumentalist Stuart Rosenberg busked across Europe, performed for presidents, and played scores of weddings and bar and bat mitzvahs in Chicago. Rosenberg died on May 7, at 68.

A pillar of Chicago’s music scene, his bands included the Rogues, Laketown Buskers, and Otters. He hosted the world music show “Radio Gumbo” on WBEZ, produced concerts at Navy Pier, and, at his Long Dog Studios, produced albums for local artists. He wrote music listings for Chicago magazine, as well. 

Rosenberg graduated from performer to producer for First Night Evanston. He also founded the Society of the Preservation of Arts and Culture in Evanston, known as S.P.A.C.E., in the 1980s. It is still a popular performance venue today. 

Always proud of his Judaism, Rosenberg taught klezmer at the Old Town School of Folk Music, lectured on the Jewish contribution to American music and comedy, and produced Yiddish theater. 

He also had a major impact on the Greater Chicago Jewish Festival, recalled one of its founders, Michael Lorge. Rosenberg performed in Hebrew and Yiddish, created the festival’s house band, brought in international acts, and insisted that the performances be recorded, he said, calling Rosenberg, “the impresario of music in Chicago, who felt that music must always build community.”

During his worldwide travels, Rosenberg found himself on a kibbutz during the Yom Kippur War; he also was present at the fall of the Berlin Wall. 

At Rosenberg’s funeral, Theo said his father’s greatest lesson was, “Life is not just to be lived, but to be crafted with imagination and creativity.”

His daughter, Allegra, recalled her father saying, “The heart of another is a dark forest.” His heart was no dark forest to me,” she added at the funeral. “He had a storyteller’s heart. He was a dreamer who made his dreams into our reality.” In fact, both of his children had their own college radio shows. 

Music, for Rosenberg, brought people together for celebrations of life. He wrote on his website that he was “especially interested in the magic of live music to transform and deepen the spirit in moments of celebration and rites of passage.” Fittingly, his funeral featured performances by former bandmates.

Stuart Rosenberg was the beloved husband of Rachel (nee Lerner), the loving father of Allegra and Theo, and the dear brother of Aaron (Iris), Robert (Lisa), and the late David (Barbara). The son of the late Murray and Beverly Rosenberg, he was the cherished uncle of Arianna, Benny and Liat Lerner and Loren, Jacob and Daniel Rosenberg, brother-in-law of Joshua Lerner (Sandra), Adina Lerner, and Mike Stan, and son-in-law of Lorraine Lerner. Memorial contributions may be made to the Greater Chicago Jewish Festival. Arrangements were made by Chicago Jewish Funerals.