Celebrated Pianist Accepts Position With Music Faculty

Robert D. Levin '68, a well-known concert pianist, has accepted a tenure offer from the Music Department, University officials said yesterday.

Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles said Levin will teach Music 180, a performance and analysis seminar. The pianist has also expressed interest in offering a Core course.

"He is a sparkling pianist, and I am thrilled that he's coming to join our faculty," Knowles said.

Levin's full-time appointment will start in fall 1993, according to Music Department officials. He will leave his current post as professor at the Freiburg Conservatory in Germany.

Professors praised Levin yesterday, citing his academic as well as performance credentials.

Mason Professor of Music Christoff Wolff said Levin's "extraordinary abilities" will work in the Music Department's favor.

"We need a full-time performer and someone who has experience in the concert world, because it is absolutely important for the first rate performers who come to study at Harvard," he said.

Knowles said the University extended a tenure offer to Levin last summer.

Wolff, who has known Levin for 20 years and has worked on several projects with him, said Levin had a difficult time deciding whether to accept Harvard's offer.

Levin might have been concerned that he would no longer teach only professional musicians, said Wolff. But he added that the pianist has expressed an interest in offering his ex- pertise to Harvard's liberal arts program inmusic, which consists mainly of composers,theorists and historians.

Visiting Professor of Music Yehudi Wyner, whois teaching Music 180 this year, called Levin a"great analytical mind" and one of the "liveliestpianists in the world."

Wyner said he considered Levin's presence "atremendous achievement" for the University.

"He's wonderful," Rosen Professor of MusicDonald J. Martino said. "We're glad the finallyaccepted."

After graduating from Harvard with a magnacum laude degree in music, Levin was hired bythe late pianist Rudolph Serkin to head the musictheory department of the Curtiss Institute ofPhiladelphia. He left the Institute to take aposition as professor of music theory and chambermusic at the State University of New York (SUNY)at Purchase.

The pianist has performed regularly withconductors Roger Norrington, John Eliot Gordon andChristopher Hogwood, as well as with the ChicagoSymphony Orchestra and other major orchestras.

Levin has recorded on classical labelsincluding Deutsche Grammophon and Nonesuch. He hasalso continued to research many of Mozart'sunfinished works, which were subject of hisundergraduate thesis.

Wyner, who served as dean of the faculty ofSUNY Purchase during Levin's term there, said thathe often sat in on the pianist's classes.

"He will bring to the task a range of knowledgethat is unprecedented," Wyner said. "If I was anundergraduate, I'd run to be in his class."

Wolff said Levin would act as a "musicalambassador" for Harvard, "performing on the stagesof the world and letting people know that theperforming on the stages of the world and lettingpeople know that the performing arts play animportant role" at the University

Visiting Professor of Music Yehudi Wyner, whois teaching Music 180 this year, called Levin a"great analytical mind" and one of the "liveliestpianists in the world."

Wyner said he considered Levin's presence "atremendous achievement" for the University.

"He's wonderful," Rosen Professor of MusicDonald J. Martino said. "We're glad the finallyaccepted."

After graduating from Harvard with a magnacum laude degree in music, Levin was hired bythe late pianist Rudolph Serkin to head the musictheory department of the Curtiss Institute ofPhiladelphia. He left the Institute to take aposition as professor of music theory and chambermusic at the State University of New York (SUNY)at Purchase.

The pianist has performed regularly withconductors Roger Norrington, John Eliot Gordon andChristopher Hogwood, as well as with the ChicagoSymphony Orchestra and other major orchestras.

Levin has recorded on classical labelsincluding Deutsche Grammophon and Nonesuch. He hasalso continued to research many of Mozart'sunfinished works, which were subject of hisundergraduate thesis.

Wyner, who served as dean of the faculty ofSUNY Purchase during Levin's term there, said thathe often sat in on the pianist's classes.

"He will bring to the task a range of knowledgethat is unprecedented," Wyner said. "If I was anundergraduate, I'd run to be in his class."

Wolff said Levin would act as a "musicalambassador" for Harvard, "performing on the stagesof the world and letting people know that theperforming on the stages of the world and lettingpeople know that the performing arts play animportant role" at the University