Young
American organist, pianist, and composer Robert Behrman quickly became
the heart of Nantucket's musical life when he moved to the island in
2006 and assumed the position of Music Director of the First
Congregational Church. An
active chamber musician, educator, and composer, Mr. Behrman's approach
to church music evokes European tradition,whereby weekly services
feature fresh, challenging, and technically rigorous solo repertoire and
chamber music, in addition to his own original compositions. Mr.
Behrman has breathed new life into the Nantucket musical traditions of
Rose Sunday and the Christmas Pageant, and has established the annual
Howard Lewis Memorial Day Concert of American music theatre, which has
been enthusiastically received by islanders and visitors alike.
Mr.
Behrman is central to the life of the island's music theatre scene, and
he is active year-round in collaborative efforts with the Nantucket
Arts Council, Seaside Shakespeare, and the Theatre Workshop of
Nantucket, for which his music directorship includes productions
of
Godspell, Cinderella, Captain Louie, Madeline's Christmas, and the summer of 2010 smash hit The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.
A skilled chamber music enthusiast, Mr. Berhman concertizes frequently with violinists Marc Thayer and Armen Ghazaryan, cellist
Janice
Reiman, and Nantucket soprano Greta Feeney. An avid composer of art songs, he has enjoyed a long collaboration with the
novelist
and poet Wallace Knight, and the resulting vocal works have been performed at the Franco American Institute in Rennes,
France
and throughout
the southern United States.
Mr. Behrman received his training in the midwestern United States, and in Europe at the
Universitat fur Musik in Vienna. At fourteen he was granted early admission
to study with Dr. James Taggart and the organist Albert Zabel at
Marshal University, and after winning the West Virginia MTNA piano
competition and the
Marshal University concerto competition, he supplemented his studies at
Indiana University
with Daniel Schene, the noted pedagogue Dr. Karen Taylor, and the
renowned
Italian pianist Enrica Cavallo-Gulli. Mr. Behrman completed his studies
at Webster
University under the guidance of Daniel Schene and the organist William
Partridge.
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