Gideon Rubin - Piano
Colburn School
Gideon Rubin has a multi-faceted career that encompasses performing as a soloist, conductor, as a chamber musician, as an orchestral keyboardist, and as a composer. As soloist, he has performed with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Classical Orchestra, several times with the New World Symphony (once conducting from the keyboard), with the New England Conservatory Youth Orchestra on a tour of Israel, and at the Eastern Music Festival where he taught and performed from 1998-2014. His performance as soloist in John Adams’ “Grand Pianola Music” (with the composer conducting) in San Francisco’s Davies Hall in 2000 was featured on the PBS “News Hour”. He has also performed on live radio broadcasts in Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, and in Israel.
He has performed solo and chamber music recitals throughout the United States and in Europe. During the 2001-2002 season, he was the pianist for the Garth Newel Piano Quartet, performing concerts in Virginia and on tour in Sicily, Italy. From 1997-2000 he was the pianist/keyboardist for the New World Symphony under the direction
of Michael Tilson Thomas, performing in Miami, New York’s Alice Tully Hall, and major venues in Paris, London, Amsterdam, and Vienna. He has performed chamber music with Julia Fischer, Robert Vernon, David Jolley, Lynn Harrel, Corey Cerovsek, Timothy Fain, and William deRosa. He has also collaborated with members of the Boston Symphony, the National Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the St. Louis Orchestra, and the Seattle Symphony.
In recent seasons, he has performed solo and chamber music at the Broad Stage in Santa Monica, several times on the Los Angeles County Museum’s “Sundays Live” Radio Broadcast Series, at LA’s Zipper Hall, at the American Church and American Cathedral in Paris, Symphony Space in New York City, the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., and at the Myra Hess Foundation Concerts in Chicago.
He earned a Bachelor of Arts degree cum laude from Harvard University, a Masters in Music from Boston University’s School of the Arts, and a Doctorate from the University of Southern California. He currently serves as a full-time member of the piano faculty at the Colburn School in Los Angeles. Previously, he was a visiting professor at Pomona College, and a piano instructor at the Los Angeles Music and Art School (LaMusArt) where he was also Music Director from 2006-2016.
He was the founder of the LaMusArt Youth Orchestra, and directed it from 2006-2016. He conducted the orchestra in concerts in Walt Disney Hall, the Hollywood Bowl, the LA Japan-American Theater, and at East LA College Performance Arts Center. In July of 2016 he conducted the celebrated pianist, Lang Lang, and his “piano orchestra” at Disney Hall as part of the “101 Pianists” Event.
Dr. Rubin is a composer and an active supporter of new music. As a pianist, he has performed with new music ensembles in New York, Los Angeles, Fresno, at Harvard University, at Boston University, and with the New World Symphony. He has performed many new works in premieres and has had pieces written for him. His own works include compositions for voice, various chamber ensembles, chamber orchestra, piano, and electronic media. He recently finished composing a set of progressive Etudes and lyric pieces for piano solo and piano four-hands. In the Spring of 2018 the Colburn School presented a special student recital exclusively featuring these new pieces.
Dr. Rubin has recorded a solo CD of 20th Century American music (available on cdbaby.com), and a CD of orchestral music by Steven Mackey on the RCA-BMG label as a member of the New World Symphony. His recording of piano quartets of Dvorak and Martinu with the Garth Newel Piano Quartet won “Best Classical Album of 2004” in the Just Plain Folks Music Awards.
In addition to his life as a musician, Dr. Rubin has studied Chinese Meditative and Martial arts for over twenty years. He is a black belt and assistant instructor at the Taoist Institute in Los Angeles studying under the tutelage of Grandmaster Sifu Carl Totton.