English Viola Romance

Brett Deubner Violist Brett Deubner enjoys a career of frequent solo recitals, membership in top American orchestras, and chamber music collaborations worldwide. Hailed for being "extremely sensitive and expressive" (Classical New Jersey), he graduated from the Eastman School of Music where he was awarded the prestigious Performers Certificate in Viola. His principal teachers were Martha Katz, founding violist of the Cleveland Quartet, and John Graham. Mr. Deubner is the founding violist of the Halcyon Trio (viola, clarinet and piano), which continues to perform regularly at prestigious venues, including the Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C. and Los Angeles' Zipper Hall. Halcyon Trio's recordings, performances and live broadcasts have garnered glowing reviews from the New Jersey Star-Ledger, the Portland Herald Press, and Vienna's Klang-Punkte. Duo Fresco features viola with classical guitar. The Duo concertizes nationally, performing new works written expressly for them. Mr. Deubner has collaborated with several of this generation's top composers in concertos written specifically for him and for his various chamber music ensembles. He will soon premiere the viola concertos of American composer Trent Johnson and Swiss composer Frank Ezra Levy. He is also premiering the new Double Concerto for viola, guitar, and chorus by legendary German-American composer Samuel Adler. Other composers have written concertos for Mr. Deubner's unique Duo Fresco, most notably Argentinian composer Sergio Parotti and Cuban-born composer Jose Lezcano. Formerly the violist of the Essex String Quartet and founding member of the acclaimed Elements Quartet, he has performed across the country as a guest artist at such venues as Kent-Blossom, Norfolk, Rutger's SummerFest, and Caramoor Festival. As a member of the Elements Quartet, Mr. Deubner received the Koussevitsky Foundation Grant for a new quartet by Pulitzer prize-winning composer David Del Tredici and also premiered David Sampson's "Elements," which was dedicated to the Elements Quartet. The Quartet artists were also the subjects of a two-hour documentary filmed at the Caramoor Festival in New York. Mr. Deubner has performed as a guest with members of the Tokyo, Vermeer, Chicago and Colorado Quartets, and with the Amadeus Trio. During the 2004-2005 season, Mr.Deubner was featured as concerto soloist with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra and the Knoxville Symphony, premiering the Triple Concerto by Lalo Schifrin, especially written for him and the Halcyon Trio. The New Jersey Star-Ledger described the debut in glowing terms: "Deubner performed the cadenzas with virtuosity, hitting the center of every note no matter how many there were..." He also performed the Bruch Double Concerto with the North Shore Philharmonic; appeared as recitalist in ten major cities from Los Angeles and New York to Juneau, Alaska; and collaborated with such international artists as Clarinetist Alexander Fiterstein, New York principal oboist Joseph Robinson, violinist Arturo Delmoni, and cellist Jeffrey Solow. As an orchestral musician, Mr.Deubner has led the viola sections of the Rochester Philharmonic, the New Jersey Symphony, the Princeton Symphony, the Heidelberg Opera Orchestra, the Bachanalia Chamber Orchestra, and the String Orchestra of New York City - as well as festival orchestras such as the National Orchestral Association, the International Festival at Roundtop, and the Manchester Music Festival. From 1998-2000 he was the Assistant Principal Violist of the Grammy Award-winning New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Deubner has given masterclasses at Cal State Northridge School of Music, Occidental College in Glendale, CA, Drew University in New Jersey, the University of Akron, University of Tennessee, University of Southern Maine, and the Kent-Blossom Festival, among many others. He is the Affiliate Artist for Viola at Kean University in Union, New Jersey. Mr. Deubner resides in Glen Ridge, NJ with his wife Susan and their four children.