Robert Taub (born 1955) is a concert pianist, recording artist, scholar, author, and entrepreneur. Raised in

Metuchen, New Jersey Metuchen ( ) is a suburban Borough (New Jersey), borough in Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County in the U.S. state of New Jersey. The borough is a commuter town of New York City, located in the heart of the Raritan River, Raritan Valle ...

, Taub graduated from

Metuchen High School Metuchen High School is a four-year comprehensive public high school that serves students in ninth through twelfth grades from Metuchen in Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey, operating as the lone secondary school of the Met ...

in 1973.Tufaro, Greg
"Metuchen 'welcomes back' alumni for Hall of Fame nominations"
''

Courier News The ''Courier News'' is a daily newspaper headquartered in Somerville, New Jersey, that serves Somerset County and other areas of Central Jersey. The paper has been owned by Gannett since 1927. Notable employees *John Curley, former presi ...

'', July 26, 2015. Accessed March 6, 2022. "Some of the school's most prominent graduates have had or are still enjoying successful careers in the arts. They include... Robert Taub (Class of 1973), an internationally acclaimed concert pianist..."

Performing arts career

Taub is a concert pianist renowned for his performances of

Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

and

contemporary music Contemporary music is whatever music is produced at the current time. Specifically, it could refer to: Genres or audiences * Adult contemporary music * British contemporary R&B * Christian adult contemporary * Christian contemporary hit radio * Con ...

. He has performed as guest soloist with the world's leading orchestras, including the MET Orchestra in

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhattan), 57t ...

, the

Boston Symphony Orchestra The Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO) is an American orchestra based in Boston. It is the second-oldest of the five major American symphony orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five (orchestras), Big Five". Founded by Henry Lee Higginson in ...

BBC Philharmonic The BBC Philharmonic is a national British broadcasting symphony orchestra and is one of five radio orchestras maintained by the British Broadcasting Corporation. The Philharmonic is a department of the BBC North Group division based at Media ...

, The

Philadelphia Orchestra The Philadelphia Orchestra is an American symphony orchestra, based in Philadelphia. One of the " Big Five" American orchestras, the orchestra is based at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts, where it performs its subscription concerts, n ...

San Francisco Symphony The San Francisco Symphony, founded in 1911, is an American orchestra based in San Francisco, California. Since 1980 the orchestra has been resident at the Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall in the city's Hayes Valley, San Francisco, Hayes Valley ne ...

Los Angeles Philharmonic The Los Angeles Philharmonic (LA Phil) is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California. The orchestra holds a regular concert season from October until June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from ...

, the

Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra The Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra () is a symphony orchestra based in Hong Kong. Colloquially referred to as the HKPO or HKPhil (), the orchestra was first established in 1947 as an amateur orchestra under the name Sino-British Orchestra (), ...

, and many others. As winner of the first Peabody Mason Award (1983), his debut performance was at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, New York City. In addition to his performances with leading orchestras, Taub has performed solo concerts on the Great Performers Series at New York's

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 ...

and other major series worldwide. He has initiated and directed several concert series and festivals - including a nationally broadcast series at the

Institute for Advanced Study The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent center for theoretical research and intellectual inquiry located in Princeton, New Jersey. It has served as the academic home of internationally preeminent scholars, including Albert Ein ...

in Princeton (where his only predecessor as Artist-in-Residence was

T.S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

). Taub has recorded the complete Sonatas of

and

Scriabin Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin, scientific transliteration: ''Aleksandr Nikolaevič Skrjabin''; also transliterated variously as Skriabin, Skryabin, and (in French) Scriabine. The composer himselused the French spelling "Scriabine" which was a ...

, as well as works of

Robert Schumann Robert Schumann (; ; 8 June 181029 July 1856) was a German composer, pianist, and music critic of the early Romantic music, Romantic era. He composed in all the main musical genres of the time, writing for solo piano, voice and piano, chamber ...

, and

Franz Liszt Franz Liszt (22 October 1811 – 31 July 1886) was a Hungarian composer, virtuoso pianist, conductor and teacher of the Romantic music, Romantic period. With a diverse List of compositions by Franz Liszt, body of work spanning more than six ...

, several of which have been selected as "critic's favorites" by ''Gramophone'', ''Newsweek'', ''The New York Times'', and ''The Washington Post''. His most recently released recording is the ''Sessions Piano Concerto'' with

James Levine James Lawrence Levine ( ; June 23, 1943 – March 9, 2021) was an American conductor and pianist. He was music director of the Metropolitan Opera from 1976 to 2016. He was terminated from all his positions and affiliations with the Met on March ...

and the

Munich Philharmonic The Munich Philharmonic () is a German symphony orchestra located in the city of Munich. It is one of Munich's four principal orchestras, along with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Munich Radio Orchestra and the Bavarian State Orche ...

. Taub's book – ''Playing the Beethoven Piano Sonatas'' – has become a standard for the Beethoven literature, and his research with Beethoven source material led him to prepare a new edition of the Beethoven Piano Sonatas for Schirmer Performance Editions, a subsidiary of Hal Leonard Corporation. A champion of new music as well as established literature, Taub has premiered piano concertos by

Milton Babbitt Milton Byron Babbitt (May 10, 1916 – January 29, 2011) was an American composer, music theorist, mathematician, and teacher. He was a Pulitzer Prize and MacArthur Fellowship recipient, recognized for his serial and electronic music. Biography ...

(MET Orchestra, James Levine) and

Mel Powell Mel Powell (born Melvin Epstein) (February 12, 1923 – April 24, 1998) was an American Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, and the founding dean of the music department at the California Institute of the Arts. He served as a music educator for over ...

(Los Angeles Philharmonic), and making the first recordings of the

Vincent Persichetti Vincent Ludwig Persichetti (June 6, 1915 – August 14, 1987) was an American composer, teacher, and pianist. An important musical educator and writer, he was known for his integration of various new ideas in musical composition into his own work ...

'Piano Concerto (Philadelphia Orchestra, Charles Dutoit) and

Roger Sessions Roger Huntington Sessions (December 28, 1896March 16, 1985) was an American composer, teacher, and writer on music. He had started his career writing in a neoclassical style, but gradually moved towards complex harmonies and postromanticism, a ...

Piano Concerto. He has premiered six works of Babbitt (solo piano, chamber music, 2nd Piano Concerto). Taub also initiated collaborations with several younger composers, including Jonathan Dawe (USA), David Bessell (UK) and Ludger Brümmer (Germany), performing their 21st century works in America and Europe. Taub is a spokesman for music, giving engaging and informal lectures and pre-concert talks. Taub was featured on the PBS television program ''Big Ideas'', which highlighted him playing and discussing Beethoven Piano Sonatas. Filmed during his seventh and final year at the Institute for Advanced Study, this program has been broadcast throughout the US on PBS affiliates.

Education and academic career

Taub is a

Phi Beta Kappa The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded in 1776 at the College of William & Mary in Virginia. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, ...

graduate of

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, where he was a University Scholar. He completed his doctoral degree at the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

as a Danforth Fellow. Studying under principal teacher

Jacob Lateiner Jacob Lateiner (March 31, 1928 – December 12, 2010) was a Cuban-American pianist. Early life and studies Though born on March 31, 1928, Lateiner's father did not get around to registering his birth until May 31 the same year. He was the br ...

, Taub received the school's highest award in piano. Taub has served as Blodgett Artist-in-Residence at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

UC Davis The University of California, Davis (UC Davis, UCD, or Davis) is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Davis, California, United States. It is the northernmost of the ten campuses of the University ...

, and the Institute for Advanced Study. He has led music forums and master classes at

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

and

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

universities, as well as The Juilliard School. He has also been visiting professor at Princeton University and Kingston University (London, UK), teaching courses in Beethoven and music history, as well as piano, chamber music, and collaborative piano.

Entrepreneurship and MuseAmi

Building upon his experiences and achievements in the performing arts, Taub founded MuseAmi, a music software and technology company, in 2008. Inspired by his daughter's experiences learning violin, Taub envisioned a technology that could "see" and "hear" music the way people do, with a goal of enhancing the way individuals create, learn, collaborate upon, and share music. With MuseAmi, Taub attracted a high-powered team of machine learning experts, signal processing engineers, and creative developers. By using advanced techniques of machine learning and digital signal processing, MuseAmi has created highly efficient software to detect, analyze, and categorize visual and audio inputs in real world contexts. Under Taub's leadership, the company has developed significant intellectual property and has been awarded several patents.

Return to performing

Following his MuseAmi-based sabbatical from concert life, Taub returned to his performing career in 2016 with new performing projects centered on both new music and Beethoven.

Books

*''Playing the Beethoven Piano Sonatas''. Amadeus Press, 2003
''Beethoven - Piano Sonatas, Volume 1: Nos 1-15'' (Schirmer Performance Editions). Hal Leonard Publishing Company, 2010''Beethoven - Piano Sonatas, Volume 2: Nos 16-32'' (Schirmer Performance Editions). Hal Leonard Publishing Company, 2010

References

External links

by John Rockwell in ''The New York Times''

by Matthew Gurewitsch in The New York Times, May 14, 2000
"Robert Taub To Perform At Institute For Advanced Study"

preview, 2002
"Is Music the Key to Success"
by Joanne Lipman in ''The New York Times'', October 12, 2013
“MuseAmi Announces a Commercial Software License Agreement with Qualcomm Technologies”
MusicAmi Press Release, September 4, 2013
"A Pitch-Perfect Pitch at CES"
MuseAmi featured in ''The Philadelphia Inquirer'', January 2012

ImproVox featured in ''Incredible iPad Apps for Dummies'', March 2011
"So easy, anyone can sound great with it."
ImproVox reviewed on ''MacLife'', February 2011

an

ImproVox in ''The New York Times'', August 21, 2010:

ImproVox featured in ''The Independent'', August 12, 2010:
"MuseAmi Hopes to Take Music Automation to New Level"
MuseAmi in ''The Wall Street Journal'', March 29, 2010:

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Taub, Robert American classical pianists American male classical pianists American male pianists American contemporary classical music performers Metuchen High School alumni People from Metuchen, New Jersey Musicians from Middlesex County, New Jersey Princeton University alumni Artists-in-Residence at the Institute for Advanced Study Juilliard School alumni Peabody Mason International Piano Competition winners 1955 births Living people Place of birth missing (living people) 20th-century American pianists 21st-century classical pianists 20th-century American male musicians 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century American pianists