Hyman Howard Taubman was an American music critic, theater critic, and author.

Biography

Born in Manhattan, Taubman attended DeWitt Clinton High School

DeWitt Clinton High School

DeWitt Clinton High School is an American high school located in the Bronx, New York City, New York.-History:Clinton opened in 1897 at 60 West 13th Street at the northern end of Greenwich Village under the name of Boys High School, although this Boys High School was not related to the one in Brooklyn...

 and then won a four-year scholarship to Cornell University

Cornell University

Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

, from which he graduated, as a Phi Beta Kappa member, in 1929.

He then returned to New York and began working for The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

. He joined the Music Department there in 1930. In 1935, he was named Music Editor. For about a year, from 1944–1945, Taubman served in the Army and worked in Italy as a writer for Stars and Stripes

Stars and Stripes (newspaper)

Stars and Stripes is a news source that operates from inside the United States Department of Defense but is editorially separate from it. The First Amendment protection which Stars and Stripes enjoys is safeguarded by Congress to whom an independent ombudsman, who serves the readers' interests,...

.

In 1955, he became the Chief Music Critic at the Times, replacing Olin Downes

Olin Downes

Olin Downes was an American music critic.He studied piano, music theory, and music criticism in New York and Boston, and it was in those two cities that he made his career as a music critic—first with the Boston Post and then with the New York Times...

 upon Downes’ death. Also in the 1950s, Taubman acted as the ghostwriter

Ghostwriter

A ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written...

 for opera singer Marian Anderson’s

Marian Anderson

Marian Anderson was an African-American contralto and one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century...

 autobiography My Lord, What a Morning.

In 1960, he took the post of Chief Drama Critic for the Times after Brooks Atkinson

Brooks Atkinson

Justin Brooks Atkinson was an American theatre critic. He worked for The New York Times from 1925 to 1960...

 retired from that position. Taubman remained in that role until 1965.

In 1961, Taubman, along with six other theater critics, was the victim of a famous hoax when Broadway producer David Merrick

David Merrick

David Merrick was a prolific Tony Award-winning American theatrical producer.-Life and career:Born David Lee Margulois to Jewish parents in St. Louis, Missouri, Merrick graduated from Washington University, then studied law at the Jesuit-run Saint Louis University School of Law...

 placed a newspaper ad for his show Subways Are For Sleeping

Subways Are For Sleeping

Subways Are for Sleeping is a musical with a book and lyrics by Betty Comden and Adolph Green and music by Jule Styne. The original Broadway production played in 1961-62....

. The ad quoted Howard Taubman, Walter Kerr

Walter Kerr

For the RN admiral see Lord Walter KerrWalter Francis Kerr was an American writer and Broadway theater critic. He also was the writer, lyricist, and/or director of several Broadway plays and musicals.-Biography:...

, and other prominent New York critics singing praises for Merrick's commercially faltering musical. The individuals quoted, however, were not the renowned theater critics themselves, but like-named New Yorkers hired by Merrick to provide positive quotes.

From 1966 until he retired in 1972, Taubman was a critic-at-large for the Times writing about cultural events from around the globe. After retiring from the Times, Taubman worked as a consultant to Exxon Corporation for the PBS series Great Performances

Great Performances

Great Performances, a television series devoted to the performing arts, has been telecast on Public Broadcasting Service public television since 1972...

.

Taubman was the author of several books, primarily related to music. He was the recipient of honorary degrees from the Philadelphia Academy of Music

University of the Arts (Philadelphia)

The University of the Arts is one of the United States' oldest universities dedicated to the arts. Its campus makes up part of the Avenue of the Arts in Center City, Philadelphia...

, Oberlin College

Oberlin College

Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...

 and Temple University

Temple University

Temple University is a comprehensive public research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Originally founded in 1884 by Dr. Russell Conwell, Temple University is among the nation's largest providers of professional education and prepares the largest body of professional...

.

Twice married and the father of two sons, Taubman died in Sarasota, Florida

Sarasota, Florida

Sarasota is a city located in Sarasota County on the southwestern coast of the U.S. state of Florida. It is south of the Tampa Bay Area and north of Fort Myers...

at the age of 88.

Works

• The Pleasure of Their Company (Amadeus Press, 1994)
• The Making of the American Theatre (Coward McCann, 1965)
• How to Bring up your Child to Enjoy Music (1958)
• How to Build a Record Library (1953)
• The Maestro: The Life of Arturo Toscanini (Simon and Schuster, 1951)
• Music on My Beat: An Intimate Volume of Shop Talk (1943)
• Music as a Profession (C. Scribner's Sons, 1939)
• Opera: Front and Back (C. Scribner's Sons, 1938)

Quotes

• "It is the destiny of the theater nearly everywhere and in every period to struggle even when it is flourishing." ~Howard Taubman, 1964

Sources

• "Howard Taubman, 88, a Times Music Critic", The New York Times, January 9, 1996
• Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians, Centennial Edition. Nicolas Slonimsky, Editor. Schirmer, 2001