Victor Rosenbaum is an American pianist, teacher, educator and administrator.
Early life
Rosenbaum was born in Philadelphia, but spent most of his childhood, from age 5, in Indianapolis Indiana. Showing an early interest in music, he began piano lessons at age 5 with Elizabeth Brock with whom he studied for eight years, later studying with Martin Marks of Butler University's Jordan College of Music. Rosenbaum also studied with Rosina Lhevinne for two summers at the Aspen Music School. His principal teacher during his college years and beyond was Leonard Shure, who himself had been a student and disciple of Artur Schnabel. Rosenbaum earned his BA degree at Brandeis University and MFA at Princeton University.
Career as pianist
As a pianist, Rosenbaum has performed in the U.S., Japan, Taiwan, Russia, Israel, Brazil, and in Europe. He was a member of two trios, the Wheaton Trio and the Figaro Trio. His recitals have taken him to Chicago, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, St. Petersburg, New York, and his long-time home, Boston, among many other places. His chamber music partners have included the Cleveland, Borromeo, and Brentano String Quartets, cellist Leonard Rose, and violinists Robert Mann, Roman Totenberg, James Buswell, and Arnold Steinhardt. Festival appearance have included Tanglewood, Yellow Barn, Kneisel Hall, The Heifetz Institute, the International Keyboard Institute and Festival, Bowdoin International Music Festival, Puerto Rico International Piano Festival, and Kfar Blum, among others. His performances have been widely praised for their communicative power. One early review said: "Rosenbaum is one of those artists who make up for all the drudgery the habitual concert goer must endurein the hopes of finding the occasional, real right thing.".
Teaching and other activities
Rosenbaum began teaching at the New England Conservatory in 1967 and that has been his primary musical home ever since. He is past Chair of the Piano and Chamber Music departments and continues to carry a full-time load of piano students. He was also Visiting Professor of Piano at Eastman School of Music during the 1983-84 academic year, and taught at Mannes College of Music in New York from 2003 to 2017. He has also held adjunct positions at Brandeis University and MIT, as well as teaching at the summer festivals mentioned above. He has also been a guest teacher at Juilliard and gives master classes worldwide at such places as the Jerusalem Music Center, the Toho School, St. Petersburg Conservatory, the Moscow Conservatory, and the three main music schools of London: The Royal College of Music, The Royal Academy of Music, and The Guildhall School. Rosenbaum was also Director of the Longy School of Music from 1985-2001. During his sixteen-year tenure as head of that school, the institution greatly expanded its educational scope and became a cultural center for the Boston/Cambridge community. The community division grew exponentially, and a master's degree program was developed for aspiring professionals. Festivals, symposia, and concert series became central to the activities of the school, as well as outreach activities into Cambridge and Boston school systems and communities. Rosenbaum has also been intermittently active as a composer and conductor. While still in graduate school he won a national choral composition competition and his works have been performed in the US and abroad. He has guest conducted the New England Conservatory orchestra, as well as community orchestras in and around Boston. He founded and conducted The Concerto Company, a chamber orchestra whose mission was to give young artists the opportunity to perform as soloist with an orchestra. Rosenbaum frequently gives lectures and workshops to teachers' organizations around the country.
