About the Artist
Music has been the motivating force throughout my life.
Raised in the New York area, within an extended family of professional classical musicians dating from the late 19th century, I lived in an environment of music performance since I was born. I began piano studies at age eight with my grandmother (a rare female concert violinist in 1900!). Because I showed natural musical ability and a strong desire to play the piano, I was fully encouraged by my family to pursue music. I started performing publicly at the age of 16, and became serious about my development in my college years. I dedicated much of my twenties and thirties to performing and further hard study. From this, I began to think deeply about the sharing of music with my audiences, students, and other listeners, building a lifelong belief in the power of fine music, its effect on people, and our need for it. This has continually grown as I work on the enhancement of my musical communication abilities.
Rollin Wilber
Career Highlights
- Graduating from high school a year early, and becoming a student of Temple University’s Maryan Filar, an internationally acclaimed pianist, in particular as a Chopin interpreter
- Contestant in the 1980 International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, Poland
- Forty years as a recitalist, including concerto solos with local orchestras
- Extensive chamber music, accompanying and coaching experience
- Piano master classes; private teaching; and innovative studio classes combining many aspects of musical understanding
- Music director for theater productions
- Creative exploration of the music listening experience in my own “Stories in Concert” series (special narratives within a music recital); and original seminars in my “Art of Listening” series (the language of expression in live music)
- Educational events connecting various arts (music, poetry, art)
- Composition of piano and vocal works, and written works for the theater
