Dr Robert Taub

Profiles

Dr Robert Taub

Director of Music

The Bridge (Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business)

As Music Director for the Arts Institute at 草霉视频, Robert Taub is excited about building and leading a collaborative programme involving fellow performing artists and colleagues within the University to bring top tier concert performances and broad-based music educational events to communities of all ages in Devon and the South West.

Qualifications

From New York鈥檚 Carnegie Hall to Hong Kong鈥檚 Cultural Centre to Germany鈥檚 avant-garde Zentrum f眉r Kunst und Medientechnologie, Robert Taub has been acclaimed internationally as a concert pianist and recording artist. He has performed as guest soloist with the world鈥檚 leading orchestras and conductors, including the MET Orchestra in Carnegie Hall with James Levine, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, BBC Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, and many others. Robert Taub has also performed solo concerts on the Great Performers Series at New York鈥檚 Lincoln Center and other major series worldwide, and has been featured in international festivals, including the Saratoga Festival, the Lichfield Festival in England, San Francisco鈥檚 Midsummer Mozart Festival, Aspen Music Festival, and the Geneva International Summer Festival, among others. He has also initiated and led several concert series and festivals, including a highly touted series at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, where is only predecessor as Artist-in-Residence was TS Eliot.

Following the conclusion of his highly celebrated New York series of Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Taub completed a sold-out Beethoven cycle in London at Hampton Court Palace. His recordings of the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas have been praised worldwide for their insight, freshness, and emotional involvement. In addition to performing, Robert Taub is an eloquent spokesman for music, giving frequent engaging and informal lectures and pre-concert talks. His book 鈥 Playing the Beethoven Piano Sonatas鈥 has been published internationally by Amadeus Press and has become a standard for the Beethoven Sonata literature. 

He has recorded the complete Sonatas of Beethoven and Scriabin, as well as works of Babbitt, Schumann, and Liszt, several of which have been selected as 鈥渃ritic鈥檚 favourites鈥 by GramophoneNewsweek,The New York Times, and The Washington Post.  His most recently released recording is the Sessions Piano Concerto with James Levine and the Munich Philharmonic

Robert Taub has been in the vanguard of new music, having premiered piano concertos by Milton Babbitt (MET Orchestra, James Levine) and Mel Powell (Los Angeles Philharmonic), and making the first recordings of the Persichetti Piano Concerto (Philadelphia Orchestra, Charles Dutoit) and Sessions Piano Concerto. He has premiered six works of Milton Babbitt (solo piano, chamber music, 2nd Piano Concerto). Taub also formed collaborations with several younger composers, including Jonathan Dawe (USA), David Bessell (UK) and Ludger Br眉mmer (Germany) performing their 21st century works in America and Europe.

During his first term at the Institute for Advanced Study, Robert Taub initiated a concert series dedicated to the complete Beethoven Piano Sonatas. So popular were these concerts that he played each program three times to sold-out houses; the series was featured in the national press. In addition, Taub started a lunchtime series of informal discussions about music. In his subsequent two terms, he included chamber music in the concert series, bringing in world-renowned colleagues, with at least one work from every concert broadcast on NPR鈥檚 鈥淧erformance Today.鈥 He also expanded the popular informal talks to include interviews with important young composers. As part of this series he arranged a special evening with James Levine and Milton Babbitt, discussing Babbitt鈥檚 2nd Piano Concerto prior to his premiere performance of this work in Carnegie Hall (with Levine and the MET Orchestra).

Taub is featured in a PBS television program 鈥 Big Ideas鈥 that highlights him playing and discussing Beethoven Piano Sonatas. Filmed during his final year at the Institute for Advanced Study, this program has been broadcast throughout the U.S. on PBS affiliates.

Dr Taub is a Phi Beta Kappagraduate of Princeton where he was a University Scholar. As a Danforth Fellow he completed his doctoral degree at The Juilliard School where he received the highest award in piano. Taub has served as Artist-in-Residence at Harvard University and at UC Davis prior to his time at the Institute for Advanced Study. He has led music forums at Oxford and Cambridge Universities and The Juilliard School. Taub has also been Visiting Professor at Princeton University and at Kingston University (U.K.). Following his time at the Institute, he founded and directed the Musica Viva Concert Series and Festivalin New Jersey, which featured orchestral and chamber music of Beethoven, Ravel and Gershwin.

In addition to his recordings of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas and his book about them, Taub has prepared a new edition of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas for Schirmers Performance Editions, published by Hal Leonard Corporation. He has also performed several 鈥渉istoric pianoforte鈥 concerts in the London area of Beethoven Sonatas, playing pianofortes 鈥 1795 Longman and Broderip, 1816 Broadwood, and 1823 Streicher 鈥 specifically associated with Beethoven during his years of composition of particular Sonatas.

Having achieved many goals in the arena of the performing arts, Taub widened his focus and founded MuseAmi (May 2007) with the vision to empower everyone worldwide to more easily facilitate their innate musical creativity 鈥 to create, learn, collaborate, and share 鈥 and participate as fully as possible with the music they love. MuseAmi attracted a high-powered and closely-knit team of leading machine learning experts, signal processing engineers, and creative developers. Under Bob鈥檚 leadership, the company developed significant intellectual property that the company commercialized with several world-leading strategic partners, enabling wholly new levels of interactive participation in music 鈥 personalization of education and entertainment. 

In 2016, Robert Taub returned to performing, teaching, and researching, with an immediate focus on Babbitt Centenary Celebrations that year. He is continuing research with re-examination of Beethoven source material for his Piano Sonatas while performing select concerts. 


Publications

Journals

  • 鈥淏eethoven, His Hands, and His Feet鈥 The International Journal of Musicology, Vol.7, 2000 (Peter Lang: Europ盲ischer Verlag der Wissenschaften.)
  • 鈥淏别别迟丑辞惫别苍鈥 The Institute Letter, Institute for Advanced Study, Spring 1996
  • 鈥淎n Appreciation of Milton鈥檚 Piano Music鈥 SONUS - Milton Babbitt: A 75th Birthday Celebration, Vol. 13, No.1, Fall 1992
  • 鈥淭he Art of Pedaling鈥 Keyboard (鈥淢asterclass鈥 section) Serialized in 3 issues: Nov.1988, Dec.1988, Jan.1989
  • 鈥淭he Autograph of the First Movement of Beethoven鈥檚 Piano Trio Op.70 no.1 (Ghost)鈥 Princeton Journal of the Arts and Sciences, Vol.1, No.2, Fall 1977, pp.78-103

Books

  • Playing the Beethoven Piano Sonatas (Published 2002, Amadeus Press/Hal Leonard Corporation)

Editions researched and prepared

  • Beethoven Piano Sonatas(complete): researched and prepared new edition of the 32 Sonatas for Schirmer Performance Editions (Hal Leonard Corporation)
  • Beethoven Triple Concertoin C major, Op. 56 for Violin, Cello, and Piano (International Music Company)
  • Shostakovich Piano Trio in E minor, Op. 67 (International Music Company)

Other Publications

Discography (available on iTunes)

Beethoven : The Complete Piano Sonatas (10 CD set) VOX Classics

Volume I (VOX2 7514)

CD1 - Op.2/1; Op.27/1; Op.78; Op.53 (Waldstein)

CD2 - Op.2/2; Op.14/1; Op.14/2; Op.27/2 (Moonlight)


Volume II (VOX2 7529)

CD1 - Op.10/1; Op.10/2; Op.10/3

CD2 - Op.13 (笔补迟丑茅迟颈辩耻别); Op.31/1; Op.101

Volume III (VOX2 7532)

CD1 - Op.7; Op.49/1; Op.49/2; Op.90

CD2 - Op.31/3; Op.54; Op.57 (Appassionata)

 

Volume IV (VOX2 7544)

CD1 - Op.26; Op.2/3; Op.109

CD2 - Op.31/2 (Tempest); Op.106 (Hammerklavier)


Volume V (VOX2 7549)

CD1 - Op.22; Op.79; Op.110

CD2 - Op.28 (Pastorale); Op.81a (Das Lebewohl); Op.111

 

Roger Sessions : Piano Concerto (1956) Oehms Classics (OC502)

James Levine, M眉nchner Philharmoniker

 

Scriabin : Complete Piano Sonatas (2-CDs) Harmonia Mundi (HM 2907266.67)      

Also issued separately:

Scriabin : Piano Sonatas No. 2, 7, 8; Preludes Op. 22, 27, 37 (HM 907041)

Scriabin : Piano Sonatas No. 1, 6, 9; Preludes Op. 48, 74 (HM 907019)

Scriabin : Piano Sonatas No. 3, 4, 5, 10 (HM 907011)

     

Beethoven : Piano Sonatas Op.2 no.1, Op.111 (HM 905190)

     

Milton Babbitt : Complete Piano Works (70th Birthday commemoration) (HM 90516)

Schumann : Davidsb眉ndlert盲nze and 2 Liszt transcriptions (HM 905133)

     

Mel Powell : 鈥淒uplicates鈥: Concerto for Two Pianos (1990) (HM 907096)

Los Angeles Philharmonic, David Alan Miller       

 

Persichetti : Piano Concerto (1963) New World Records (NW 370-2)

Charles Dutoit, The Philadelphia Orchestra              

 

Roger Sessions : Piano Concerto (1956) (NW 80443-2)     

Paul Dunkel, The Westchester Philharmonic,        

 

Bartok : Sonata; Shifrin: Responses; Babbitt: Three Compositions (CRI - SD 461)

Kirchner : Sonata 



Works commissioned for Robert Taub 

Jonathan Dawe  

Piano Concerto No. 1 (2004) commissioned by the Wharton Center for the Performing Arts, Michigan State University. Premiered by Taub and MSU Orchestra, April 2004
 

Milton Babbitt

Piano Concerto No. 2 (1998) 鈥 commissioned by the Dodge Foundation for Robert Taub and James Levine. First performance: Carnegie Hall, NYC, Taub, Levine, and the MET Orchestra Nov.1998.

Encore (2006) for violin and piano 鈥 commissioned by the Library of Congress. First performance: Library of Congress, Washington DC, May 2006

Piano Quartet (1995) for piano, violin, viola, and cello 鈥 commissioned by the Library of Congress. First performance: Kennedy Center, Washington DC, May 1996

Preludes, Interludes, and Postlude (1991) for solo piano First performance Univ. of Washington, April 1991.

Emblems (1990) for solo piano. First performance Merkin Hall, NYC 1990

Canonical Form (1983) for solo piano; commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard University. First performance May 1984 at Queen Elizabeth Hall, London.

Mel Powell

Duplicates: Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra ( 1990). Commissioned by the Los Angeles Philharmonic. World Premiere January 1990, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Robert Taub & Alan Feinberg, pianists; David Alan Miller, cond.

Jane O鈥橪eary

Apart, Together; a Piano Quintet (2000, Music for Galway, Ireland); composed for Taub and the Vanbrugh String Quartet

Personal

Additional information

Married with three adult children, who are currently living in London and NYC

Hobbies include cycling, running, walking on Dartmoor, and restoring classic British and Italian motorcycles, one of which 鈥  a 1969 Norton Commando 鈥 was featured in the UK鈥檚 Classic Bike magazine

 

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