Roman Totenberg
Encyclopedia
Roman Totenberg is a Polish-American violin
ist and educator.
He is the father of National Public Radio journalist Nina Totenberg
. His wife, Melanie Shroder Totenberg (1917–1996), acted as business manager for her husband for 50 years.
, and made his debut at the age of twelve as soloist with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra
in 1923. He was also awarded the gold medal at the Chopin Conservatory/Warsaw and continued his studies with Carl Flesch
in Berlin, where he won the International Mendelssohn Prize
in 1931, and later with George Enescu
and Pierre Monteux
in Paris. He made both his British debut in London and his American debut in New York in 1935.
, and has given joint recitals with Karol Szymanowski
. He has given many concerts comprising the complete cycle of Beethoven
sonatas and all Brandenburg concertos
. His diversified repertoire includes more than thirty concerti. Among the many contemporary works he has introduced are the Darius Milhaud
Violin Concerto No. 2, the William Schuman
Concerto, and the Krzysztof Penderecki
Capriccio. He also premiered Paul Hindemith
's Sonata in E (1935), the Samuel Barber
Concerto (new version) and the Bohuslav Martinů
Sonata, as well as giving the American premiere of Arthur Honegger
's Sonate for violin solo. Under the patronage of the eminent violinist Yehudi Menuhin
, Roman Totenberg along with pianist Adolph Baller
and cellist Gabor Rejto formed the Alma Trio
in 1942-43 at Menuhin's Alma estate in California
.
Totenberg has appeared with numerous American orchestras including the New York Philharmonic
, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland
, Minneapolis
, Indianapolis
, Los Angeles
, and Washington Symphonies. In Europe he has performed with all major orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic and the Concertgebouw
. He performed with such a great conductors as Stokowski, Kubelik, Szell, Rodzinski, Fitelberg, Jochum, Rowicki, Krenz, Monteux, Wit, Steinberg and Golschmann. In recital he has appeared at the White House
, Carnegie Hall
, the Library of Congress
, the Metropolitan Museum of Art
, and in every major American and European city. He has been featured with the most important music festivals of the world, notably at Salzburg's Mozarteum, the Aspen Music Festival
, Tanglewood Music Center
, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and at the Music Academy of the West
in Santa Barbara
where he became chairman of the string department in 1947.
, where he headed the String Department from 1961 to 1978. He has also taught at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, the Music Academy of the West
, the Aspen School of Music
, the Mannes College of Music
, and at the Longy School of Music
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
, where he was the Director from 1978 to 1985.
His notable students include: Yevgeny Kutik
, Mira Wang, Daniel Han, Rachel Vetter Huang
, Na Sun, Ikuko Mizuno, and Marcin Markowicz.
and in April 2007 he was honored with the New England String Ensemble
's Muses & Mentors Award for his great artistry and significant contributions to string education.
In 1988 he was awarded the highest Medal of Merit by the Polish
Government for his life-long contributions to Polish society.
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
ist and educator.
He is the father of National Public Radio journalist Nina Totenberg
Nina Totenberg
Nina Totenberg is an American legal affairs correspondent for National Public Radio focusing primarily on the activities and politics of the Supreme Court of the United States. Her reports air regularly on NPR's newsmagazines All Things Considered, Morning Edition, and Weekend Edition...
. His wife, Melanie Shroder Totenberg (1917–1996), acted as business manager for her husband for 50 years.
Early life
Born in Łódź in a Jewish family, Totenberg was a child prodigy, studied with Michalowicz in WarsawWarsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...
, and made his debut at the age of twelve as soloist with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra
Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra
The Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra , one of Poland's premier musical institutions, was established in 1901 on the initiative of an assembly of Polish aristocrats and financiers, as well as musicians...
in 1923. He was also awarded the gold medal at the Chopin Conservatory/Warsaw and continued his studies with Carl Flesch
Carl Flesch
Carl Flesch was a violinist and teacher.Carl Flesch was born in Moson in Hungary in 1873. He began playing the violin at seven years of age. At 10, he was taken to Vienna, and began to study with Jakob Grün. At 17, he left for Paris, and joined the Paris Conservatoire...
in Berlin, where he won the International Mendelssohn Prize
Mendelssohn Scholarship
The Mendelssohn Scholarship refers to two scholarships awarded in Germany and in the United Kingdom. Both commemorate the composer, Felix Mendelssohn, and are awarded to promising young musicians to enable them to continue their development.-History:...
in 1931, and later with George Enescu
George Enescu
George Enescu was a Romanian composer, violinist, pianist, conductor and teacher.-Biography:Enescu was born in the village of Liveni , Dorohoi County at the time, today Botoşani County. He showed musical talent from early in his childhood. A child prodigy, Enescu created his first musical...
and Pierre Monteux
Pierre Monteux
Pierre Monteux was an orchestra conductor. Born in Paris, France, Monteux later became an American citizen.-Life and career:Monteux was born in Paris in 1875. His family was descended from Sephardi Jews who came to France in the wake of the Spanish Inquisition. He studied violin from an early age,...
in Paris. He made both his British debut in London and his American debut in New York in 1935.
Professional life
Totenberg has toured South America with Arthur RubinsteinArthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein KBE was a Polish-American pianist. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music of a variety of composers...
, and has given joint recitals with Karol Szymanowski
Karol Szymanowski
Karol Maciej Szymanowski was a Polish composer and pianist.-Life:Szymanowski was born into a wealthy land-owning Polish gentry family in Tymoszówka, then in the Russian Empire, now in Cherkasy Oblast, Ukraine. He studied music privately with his father before going to Gustav Neuhaus'...
. He has given many concerts comprising the complete cycle of Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven
Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer and pianist. A crucial figure in the transition between the Classical and Romantic eras in Western art music, he remains one of the most famous and influential composers of all time.Born in Bonn, then the capital of the Electorate of Cologne and part of...
sonatas and all Brandenburg concertos
Brandenburg concertos
The Brandenburg concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach are a collection of six instrumental works presented by Bach to Christian Ludwig, margrave of Brandenburg-Schwedt, in 1721 . They are widely regarded as among the finest musical compositions of the Baroque era...
. His diversified repertoire includes more than thirty concerti. Among the many contemporary works he has introduced are the Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud
Darius Milhaud was a French composer 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 compositions are influenced by jazz and make use of polytonality...
Violin Concerto No. 2, the William Schuman
William Schuman
William Howard Schuman was an American composer and music administrator.-Life:Born in Manhattan in New York City to Samuel and Rachel Schuman, Schuman was named after the twenty-seventh U.S. president, William Howard Taft, although his family preferred to call him Bill...
Concerto, and the Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Penderecki
Krzysztof Penderecki , born November 23, 1933 in Dębica) is a Polish composer and conductor. His 1960 avant-garde Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima for string orchestra brought him to international attention, and this success was followed by acclaim for his choral St. Luke Passion. Both these...
Capriccio. He also premiered Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith
Paul Hindemith was a German composer, violist, violinist, teacher, music theorist and conductor.- Biography :Born in Hanau, near Frankfurt, Hindemith was taught the violin as a child...
's Sonata in E (1935), the Samuel Barber
Samuel Barber
Samuel Osborne Barber II was an American composer of orchestral, opera, choral, and piano music. His Adagio for Strings is his most popular composition and widely considered a masterpiece of modern classical music...
Concerto (new version) and the Bohuslav Martinů
Bohuslav Martinu
Bohuslav Martinů was a prolific Czech composer of modern classical music. He was of Czech and Rumanian ancestry. Martinů wrote six symphonies, 15 operas, 14 ballet scores and a large body of orchestral, chamber, vocal and instrumental works. Martinů became a violinist in the Czech Philharmonic...
Sonata, as well as giving the American premiere of Arthur Honegger
Arthur Honegger
Arthur Honegger was a Swiss composer, who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. He was a member of Les six. His most frequently performed work is probably the orchestral work Pacific 231, which is interpreted as imitating the sound of a steam locomotive.-Biography:Born...
's Sonate for violin solo. Under the patronage of the eminent violinist Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...
, Roman Totenberg along with pianist Adolph Baller
Adolph Baller
Adolph Baller was an Austrian-American pianist.- Early years :...
and cellist Gabor Rejto formed the Alma Trio
Alma Trio
The Alma Trio was a classical piano trio established in 1942 at the Alma Estate of Yehudi Menuhin in Los Gatos, California.- Original members :...
in 1942-43 at Menuhin's Alma estate in California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Totenberg has appeared with numerous American orchestras including the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
, the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland
Cleveland Orchestra
The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. It is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the "Big Five". Founded in 1918, the orchestra plays most of its concerts at Severance Hall...
, Minneapolis
Minnesota Orchestra
The Minnesota Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.Emil Oberhoffer founded the orchestra as the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra in 1903, and it gave its first performance on November 5 of that year. In 1968 the orchestra changed to its name to the Minnesota Orchestra...
, Indianapolis
Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra is a major American orchestra based in Indianapolis, Indiana.Annually, the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra performs 200 concerts for over 350,000 people. It is the largest performing arts organization in Indiana. The ISO is currently one of only 18 American...
, Los Angeles
Los Angeles Philharmonic
The Los Angeles Philharmonic is an American orchestra based in Los Angeles, California, United States. It has a regular season of concerts from October through June at the Walt Disney Concert Hall, and a summer season at the Hollywood Bowl from July through September...
, and Washington Symphonies. In Europe he has performed with all major orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the London Philharmonic and the Concertgebouw
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra
The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is a symphony orchestra of the Netherlands, based at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In 1988, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands conferred the "Royal" title upon the orchestra...
. He performed with such a great conductors as Stokowski, Kubelik, Szell, Rodzinski, Fitelberg, Jochum, Rowicki, Krenz, Monteux, Wit, Steinberg and Golschmann. In recital he has appeared at the White House
White House
The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...
, Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
, the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
, the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
, and in every major American and European city. He has been featured with the most important music festivals of the world, notably at Salzburg's Mozarteum, the Aspen Music Festival
Aspen Music Festival and School
The Aspen Music Festival and School, founded in 1949, is an internationally renowned classical music festival that presents music in an intimate, small-town setting...
, Tanglewood Music Center
Tanglewood Music Center
The Tanglewood Music Center is an annual summer music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, United States, in which emerging professional musicians participate in performances, master classes and workshops designed to provide an intense training and networking experience...
, Kneisel Hall Chamber Music Festival, and at the Music Academy of the West
Music Academy of the West
The Music Academy of the West is a music conservatory located in Montecito, California near Santa Barbara, California. Every year, it hosts a summer music festival for the community highlighted by concerts and workshops directed by famous composers, conductors, and artists.A yearly maximum of 135...
in Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, California
Santa Barbara is the county seat of Santa Barbara County, California, United States. Situated on an east-west trending section of coastline, the longest such section on the West Coast of the United States, the city lies between the steeply-rising Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean...
where he became chairman of the string department in 1947.
Pedagogy
Beside his concert activities, Totenberg now holds the position of Professor of Music at Boston UniversityBoston University
Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...
, where he headed the String Department from 1961 to 1978. He has also taught at the Peabody Conservatory of Music, the Music Academy of the West
Music Academy of the West
The Music Academy of the West is a music conservatory located in Montecito, California near Santa Barbara, California. Every year, it hosts a summer music festival for the community highlighted by concerts and workshops directed by famous composers, conductors, and artists.A yearly maximum of 135...
, the Aspen School of Music
Aspen Music Festival and School
The Aspen Music Festival and School, founded in 1949, is an internationally renowned classical music festival that presents music in an intimate, small-town setting...
, the Mannes College of Music
Mannes College of Music
Mannes College The New School for Music is The New School university's music conservatory. While the university's main campus is located in Greenwich Village, New York City, Mannes maintains its main academic building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan....
, and at the Longy School of Music
Longy School of Music
The Longy School of Music of Bard College is a conservatory located near Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1915, it was one of the four independent degree-granting music schools in the Boston region along with the New England Conservatory, Berklee College of Music, and Boston...
in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Cambridge is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, in the Greater Boston area. It was named in honor of the University of Cambridge in England, an important center of the Puritan theology embraced by the town's founders. Cambridge is home to two of the world's most prominent...
, where he was the Director from 1978 to 1985.
His notable students include: Yevgeny Kutik
Yevgeny Kutik
Yevgeny Kutik has over the years been building a prestigious violin career . A student of legendary violinist Roman Totenberg and famous pedagogue, Donald Weilerstein , Kutik recently performed at Ozawa Hall where he played solo Bach to a full audience . Mr...
, Mira Wang, Daniel Han, Rachel Vetter Huang
Rachel Vetter Huang
Rachel Vetter Huang is a classical violinist, recording artist and Adjunct Professor in Music at Scripps College. She is also a published scholar in general music, African-American music and jazz...
, Na Sun, Ikuko Mizuno, and Marcin Markowicz.
Recognition
In 1983 he was named Artist Teacher of the Year by the American String Teachers AssociationAmerican String Teachers Association
The American String Teacher's Association is a professional organization based in the United States for music teachers. It is the largest such national organization in the US for string teachers. It promotes learning to play string instruments in the next generation of American students, and...
and in April 2007 he was honored with the New England String Ensemble
New England String Ensemble
New England String Ensemble was founded in 1993 by violinist Peter Stickel and cellist John Bumstead to champion strings in performance and education and is one of the country’s leading professional string orchestras...
's Muses & Mentors Award for his great artistry and significant contributions to string education.
In 1988 he was awarded the highest Medal of Merit by the Polish
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
Government for his life-long contributions to Polish society.
Recording career
Totenberg has recorded under various labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Telefunken, Philips, Da Camera, Musical Heritage, Vanguard, Titanic and VQR.External links
- Roman Totenberg at 90
- Roman Totenberg at 95
- List of violinists that studied with Roman Totenberg
- Roman Totenberg awarded with "Muses and Mentors Award"