Robert Greenleaf Brink (Boston, 30 March 1924 - Boston, 24 October 2014) was an American violinist, conductor, and educator. He was a professor of music at the

New England Conservatory The New England Conservatory of Music (NEC) is a Private college, private music school in Boston, Massachusetts. The conservatory is located on Huntington Avenue along Avenue of the Arts (Boston), the Avenue of the Arts near Boston Symphony Ha ...

Boston, Massachusetts Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

. He performed with the

harpsichord A harpsichord is a musical instrument played by means of a musical keyboard, keyboard. Depressing a key raises its back end within the instrument, which in turn raises a mechanism with a small plectrum made from quill or plastic that plucks one ...

ist Daniel Pinkham and gave the premieres of works by

Walter Piston Walter Hamor Piston, Jr. (January 20, 1894 – November 12, 1976), was an American composer of classical music, music theorist, and professor of music at Harvard University. Life Piston was born in Rockland, Maine at 15 Ocean Street to Walter ...

Henry Cowell Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher, teacher Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 2022.C ...

, Alan Hovhaness, and Daniel Pinkham. Pinkham composed his 1958

violin concerto A violin concerto is a concerto for solo violin (occasionally, two or more violins) and instrumental ensemble (customarily orchestra). Such works have been written since the Baroque period, when the solo concerto form was first developed, up thro ...

for Brink. He performed in the United States, Canada, and Europe, and played under the conductors Sergei Koussevitzky,

Aaron Copland Aaron Copland (, ; November 14, 1900December 2, 1990) was an American composer, critic, writer, teacher, pianist, and conductor of his own and other American music. Copland was referred to by his peers and critics as the "Dean of American Compos ...

, and

Darius Milhaud Darius Milhaud (, ; 4 September 1892 – 22 June 1974) was a French composer, conductor, and teacher. He was a member of Les Six—also known as ''The Group of Six''—and one of the most prolific composers of the 20th century. His composition ...

. With Daniel Pinkham, Brink co-founded the Cambridge Festival Orchestra in the mid-1950s, serving as that orchestra's

concertmaster The concertmaster (from the German language, German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (UK) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (clarinet or oboe in a concert band). After the Conducting, conductor, the concertma ...

. In 1951 and 1952, Brink and Pinkham performed at Brown University and Wellesley college under the auspices of the Peabody Mason Concerts.''The Townsman'', 24-Jan-1952, "College Corelli concerts notable", Wellesley Brink founded the

Boston Classical Orchestra The Boston Classical Orchestra was a chamber orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States ...

and served as its concertmaster until 1995. He founded and conducted the Orchestra for the Art of Music (OAM), which performs music from the Classical period. He lived for many years in Mattapoisett, Massachusetts.

References

External links

Robert Brink official site
from New England Conservatory site American classical violinists American male classical violinists American conductors (music) American male conductors (music) 1924 births People from Mattapoisett, Massachusetts 2014 deaths {{US-violinist-stub