Brett Deubner (born March 31, 1968, Berkeley, California) is an American violist. He has performed as

concerto A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typi ...

soloist with over 70 orchestras on four continents.

Early life

Growing up his primary teachers were violinists Melvin Ritter and

Fredell Lack Fredell Lack (February 19, 1922 – August 20, 2017) was an American violinist. Noted as a concert soloist, recording artist, chamber musician, and teacher, she was the C. W. Moores Distinguished Professor of Violin at the Moores School of ...

, both star pupils of

Ivan Galamian Ivan Alexander Galamian ( hy, Իվան Ղալամեան; April 14, 1981) was an Armenian-American violin teacher of the twentieth century who was the violin teacher of many seminal violin players including Itzhak Perlman. Biography Galamian w ...

at the Juilliard School in New York City. Deubner studied both violin and viola at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York, where his primary teachers were

Zvi Zeitlin Zvi Zeitlin (21 February 19222 May 2012) was a Russian-born American classical violinist and teacher. Born in Dubroŭna (now in Belarus), the son of Jewish parents: a doctor and amateur violinist, Zeitlin won a scholarship at the age of 11 to th ...

, Martha Katz, the Cleveland Quartet and John Graham.

Career and performances

Deubner has performed as a soloist with orchestras all over the world. * In the USA:

Grand Rapids Symphony The Grand Rapids Symphony is a professional orchestra located in Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1930, the Symphony is celebrating its 90th anniversary season in 2019-20. In 2006, its recording ''Invention and Alchemy'' was nominated for ...

Peninsula Symphony The Peninsula Symphony is an American symphony orchestra, based in the San Francisco Peninsula, California. The orchestra consists of over 90 community musicians. In 1995, the Peninsula Symphony was featured in a PBS broadcast. Since its beginn ...

, New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Missoula Symphony and Knoxville Symphony, among others. * In South America, with orchestras from Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. * In Europe, with Orchestre Bel'Arte of Paris, the Thüringer Symphoniker of Saalfeld, Germany, the National Chamber Orchestra of Ukraine and orchestras from Italy, Denmark and Bulgaria. * Australia, with Percy Grainger Wind Symphony, Melbourne

Grammy The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

winning composers such as

Lalo Schifrin Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Latin American musical elemen ...

, Carlos Franzetti, and Richard Danielpour have written viola

concerti A concerto (; plural ''concertos'', or ''concerti'' from the Italian plural) is, from the late Baroque era, mostly understood as an instrumental composition, written for one or more soloists accompanied by an orchestra or other ensemble. The typi ...

for Brett Deubner. , Deubner has had over 80 works for viola including 37 viola concerti and numerous solo and

chamber Chamber or the chamber may refer to: In government and organizations *Chamber of commerce, an organization of business owners to promote commercial interests *Legislative chamber, in politics *Debate chamber, the space or room that houses deliber ...

works for viola written for him. He has recorded 15 CDs including concertos of

Trent Johnson Trent Aubrey Johnson (born September 12, 1956) is an American college basketball coach who is currently head coach at Cal State Northridge. Johnson had previously been the head coach at Texas Christian University, Louisiana State University, Stanf ...

Frank Lewin Frank Lewin (March 27, 1925 – January 18, 2008) was an American composer and teacher. Biography Frank Lewin was born March 27, 1925, in Breslau, Germany. He and his family escaped from Germany in 1939, spent a year in Cuba, and came to ...

, and Andrew Rudin, and made

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numb ...

recordings for

string quartet The term string quartet can refer to either a type of musical composition or a group of four people who play them. Many composers from the mid-18th century onwards wrote string quartets. The associated musical ensemble consists of two violinists ...

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...

trio,

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

/ viola/ piano trio, viola/ guitar duo and 5 viola/piano CDs.

Collaborations

He has collaborated with leading conductors as

Perry So Perry Pak Hin So (蘇柏軒) is an orchestral conductor. Between 2008 and 2012 he was the Assistant, subsequently Associate Conductor of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2009/10 he was a conducting fellow of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. B ...

Anne Manson Anne Manson (born 1961, Cambridge, Massachusetts) is an American orchestral and opera conductor. Manson was music director of the Kansas City Symphony from 1999 until 2003, and is currently music director of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra.

, Lucas Richman, Patricio Aizaga, David Lockington, Oliver Weder and Rossen Milanov. As a chamber music collaborator, Deubner has performed with violinists Pinchas Zukerman, Timothy Fain, Gregory Fulkerson,

Stefan Milenkovich Stefan Milenkovich ( sr, Stefan Milenković, Стефан Миленковић; born January 25, 1977) is a Serbian violinist. Early life Milenković was born to a Serbian father, Zoran Milenković, and a Serbian-born mother of Italian descent, L ...

and Dimitry Sitkovetsky, the Tokyo Quartet,

Claremont Trio Claremont Trio is a New York-based piano trio including Juilliard School alumnae Emily Bruskin (violin) and Julia Bruskin (cello), and Yale School of Music alumna Sophiko Simsive (piano). The group was founded at Juilliard in 1999, and made its p ...

, the

Vermeer Quartet The Vermeer Quartet was a string quartet founded in 1969 at the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont and active until 2007. With performances in practically every major city in North and South America, Europe, the Far East, and Australia, the Verme ...

; pianists

Joseph Kalichstein Joseph Kalichstein (15 January 1946 – 31 March 2022) was an American classical pianist who performed in the concerto, solo recital and chamber music repertoire, the latter mainly with Jaime Laredo and Sharon Robinson (cellist), Sharon Robinson ...

Jeffrey Swann Jeffrey Swann (born November 24, 1951) is an American classical pianist. Swann was born in Arizona but moved to Dallas, Texas, as a young child. He began piano studies at the age of four. While attending St. Mark's School of Texas, he studied for ...

and Robert Koenig; cellists

Wendy Warner Wendy Warner is a cellist from Chicago, Illinois. She performs both as a soloist with major orchestras and as a chamber musician around the world. Career Wendy Warner is one of the world's leading cellists, praised by Strings magazine for her � ...

and Sarah Sant’Ambrogio; clarinetists Guy Deplus and Alexander Fiterstein; flutists

Carol Wincenc Carol Wincenc ( ) born June 29, 1949 is an American flutist based in New York City. She is known for her solo and chamber music performances and her support of new music for the flute. She is on the faculty of the Juilliard School and Stony Brook ...

and Ransom Wilson; New York Philharmonic former principal oboist Joseph Robinson and

Dallas Symphony The Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) is an American orchestra based in Dallas, Texas. Its principal performing venue is the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center in the Arts District of downtown Dallas. History The orchestra traces its origins to a ...

principal oboist Erin Hannigan. During 2017, Deubner will record and premiere Grammy-award-winning composer Richard Danielpour’s viola concerto being specifically written for him.

Social accomplishments

Deubner instructs young violists on the faculty at the

Aaron Copland School of Music The Aaron Copland School of Music is one of the oldest departments at Queens College, founded when the College opened in 1937. The department's curriculum was originally established by Edwin Stringham, and a later emphasis on the analytical sys ...

Queens College Queens College (QC) is a public college in the Queens borough of New York City. It is part of the City University of New York system. Its 80-acre campus is primarily located in Flushing, Queens. It has a student body representing more than 170 ...

in New York. Besides, he is the

Artistic Director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogul, since the ...

of the concert series ''Music and More'' serving the NYC metropolitan area; he also serves as the faculty of the

Round Top Festival Institute The Round Top Festival Institute is a musical institute established in 1971 by pianist James Dick in Round Top, Texas. It provides musical education programs in summer months, and hosts several concert A concert is a live music performance ...

in Texas and the Gramado in Concert International Music Festival in Brazil. Deubner provides master clinics in the USA and abroad.

Private life

Deubner lives in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, with his wife and four children.

References

External links

The Artist as Leader: Brett DeubnerInterview with composer Stephen Brown
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deubner, Brett American violists American male violinists Musicians from Berkeley, California Living people Eastman School of Music alumni 1968 births 21st-century American violinists 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century violists