Education

Robert Durso attended the Peabody Conservatory of Music, obtained his Bachelor of Music Degree from Indiana University, Bloomington and received his Master of Music Degree from Temple University. His principal teachers were Enrica Cavallo-Gulli, Harvey Wedeen, Edna Golandsky, Dorothy Taubman and Rosalyn Tureck.

The Taubman Approach

Mr. Durso has worked with Edna Golandsky and Dorothy Taubman since 1983 and was a faculty member of the former Taubman Institute. Currently, Mr. Durso is a co-founder, master teacher and senior director of the Golandsky Institute, held annually at Princeton University.

Performances

Mr. Durso has performed extensively, including appearances at Carnegie Recital Hall, the Toronto Music Festival, Temple University, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, and in a tour of South Carolina sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. His engagements abroad have included concerts at La Chiesa della Palma in Cagliari, Sardinia where he premiered a work by Sardinian composer Roberto Mirigliano; the Palazzo Cenci in Rome; the Ehrbarsaal in Vienna; L’Atelier in Brussels, as well as concerts in Zurich, Taiwan and Oxford, England. Mr. Durso has performed with the Yaquina Symphony Orchestra under the baton of David Ogden Stiers in a four-concert tour of the Oregon coast. He has performed and given master classes at the invitation of Paul Roberts at Castelfranc in France.

Mr Durso is a founding member of the Belmonte Trio along with Jennifer K. Lee and Glenn Fischbach. He has collaborated in chamber music performances with Stephanie Jeong, violin, and several Philadelphia Orchestra members, including, John Koen, cello and Jason Depue, violin.

Teaching

He has conducted master classes and concerts at Mount Holyoke College, Portland State University, Berkeley Chapter of the San Francisco MTNA, Spokane Music Teachers Association, NEPTA in Boston, Tel Aviv, Israel and Rome. Mr. Durso was invited to Caracas, Venezuela by the US Embassy to present the work of Dorothy Taubman for the first time in South America.

He has produced several first place winners in national and international competitions, including, The Bartok/Kabelevsky International, Artist International, NYC, Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition 2014, The Joseph Suk International Piano Competition in Prague, The Ambler Symphony Young Artist Competition, The Princeton Piano Competition 2011 and 2015, The Cal Rudman Competition and The Marymount Concerto Competition, 16th International Gianluca Campochiaro Competition in Pedara, Sicily and International Piano Competition “Giuseppe Terracciano” Giffoni Valle Piana, Italy, 2007. His students have performed and participated in leading festivals including, The Aspen Music Festival, The Lake George Festival, The Brooklyn Art Song Society and the Portland Piano festival, among others.

Mr. Durso specializes in audition and competition preparation. His students have been accepted and have attended several of the leading conservatories, including the Curtis Institute, Juilliard School, Oberlin Conservatory, Indiana University, New England Conservatory and the Peabody Conservatory.