Robert Mann

Robert Nathaniel Mann (July 19, 1920 – January 1, 2018) 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. Mann, the first violinist at Juilliard, served on the school's string quartet for over fifty years until his retirement in 1997.

Biography

Early life Mann was born and raised in Portland, Oregon. His father worked as a tailor and a grocer. 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. He attended the Portland Youth Philharmonic, but had planned to become a forest ranger in his youth. From 1999-2001, he conducted at the Naumburg Orchestral Concerts, in the Naumburg Bandshell, Central Park, in the summer series.

Other work As a mentor to younger generations of string musicians, Mann worked intensively with the Alexander, American, Concord, Emerson, New World, Mendelssohn, Tokyo, Brentano, Lark, and St. Lawrence strings quartets, as well as with members of the Cleveland String Quartet and other ensembles. In later years, he expanded his teaching to include violin majors at the Juilliard School. Among his students were Juliette Kang, who won the Indianapolis International Violin Competition in 1994, and Mark Steinberg, the first violinist of the Brentano String Quartet.

Founder and first artistic director of the Ravinia Stean's Institute for Young Artists at Chicago's Ravinia Festival, Mann also served as chairman of the Chamber Music Panel of the National Endowment for the Arts. He was a member of the board of directors of the New York Philharmonic, and president of the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation. In 1990, Mann was honored as the recipient of the Chamber Music America Service Award and the annual award of the American String Teachers Association. He 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.

Mann's son, Nicholas, a violinist and violist with whom the senior Mann often played duo recitals, is a founding member of the Mendelssohn String Quartet. His daughter, Lisa Mann Marotta, is a psychologist. Aerospace and biomedical engineering entrepreneur Alfred E. Mann was his brother.

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.

Mann died on January 1, 2018.