1. Robert Nathaniel Mann was a violinist, composer, conductor, and founding member of the Juilliard String Quartet, as well as a faculty member at the Manhattan School of Music.
18 Facts About Robert Mann
1. 2.
Robert Mann played and performed on many instruments, including those made by Antonio Stradivari and John Young.
3.
Robert Mann was the subject of a 2014 documentary, titled Speak the Music.
4.
Robert Mann's father worked as a tailor and a grocer.
5.
Robert Mann began his study of the violin at age nine; at 13, he was accepted into the class of Edouard Hurlimann, concertmaster of the Portland Symphony.
6.
Robert Mann attended the Portland Youth Philharmonic, but had planned to become a forest ranger in his youth.
7.
Robert Mann won the prestigious Naumburg Competition in 1941 and made his New York debut two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor.
8.
At the invitation of Juilliard's president, William Schuman, Robert Mann founded the Juilliard String Quartet in 1946 and served as the ensemble's first violinist until his retirement from the quartet in 1997.
9.
Robert Mann composed more than 30 works for narrator with various instruments that he performed with his wife, the actress Lucy Rowan; several have been recorded on the Musical Heritage label.
10.
Robert Mann composed a Fantasy for Orchestra performed by Dimitri Mitropoulos with the New York Philharmonic, the Vienna Philharmonic, and at the Salzburg Festival; a Duo for Violin and Piano premiered at Carnegie Hall by Itzhak Perlman and Samuel Sanders; and a string quartet included in the repertoires of both the La Salle and the Concord string quartets.
11.
Robert Mann conducted throughout his professional career; he led the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a Peter Bartok recording of Bela Bartok's Piano Concerto No 1.
12.
Founder and first artistic director of the Ravinia Stean's Institute for Young Artists at Chicago's Ravinia Festival, Robert Mann served as chairman of the Chamber Music Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts.
13.
Robert Mann was a member of the board of directors of the New York Philharmonic, and president of the Walter W Naumburg Foundation.
14.
In 1990, Robert Mann was honored as the recipient of the Chamber Music America Service Award and the annual award of the American String Teachers Association.
15.
Robert Mann received honorary doctorates from the Manhattan School of Music, Oberlin College, Michigan State University, Earlham College, Jacksonville University, and the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
16.
Robert Mann's son, Nicholas, a violinist and violist with whom the senior Robert Mann often played duo recitals, is a founding member of the Mendelssohn String Quartet.
17.
Aerospace and biomedical engineering entrepreneur Alfred E Mann was his brother.
18.
In recognition of his contributions to the arts, Robert Mann was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in April 1996.