ABBA

Violinist who has been teaching since the age of sixteen, and has become one of the most renowned string instructors in the world. He received a Bachelor of Arts degree in music from CSU-Northridge.

Before deciding to concentrate the bulk of his attention on enlightening young, budding violinists, he did his fair share of recording, including a pair of 1973 albums, Neil Diamond’s Hot August Night and Carole King’s Fantasy. (He has subsequently appeared on virtually every Carole King greatest-hits re-packaging.)

In 1978, he was a member of the string section on the prog-rock band Triumvirat’s A la Carte. He then performed on a triumvirate of 1979 releases, The Emotions’ Come into Our World, D.J. Rogers’ Trust Me and Frank Sinatra’s boxed set, Trilogy.

In 1980, he hooked up with Earth, Wind & Fire on their Faces LP and Tavares on Supercharged. Equally electric was EWF’s 1983 album, Powerlight, also featuring Robert on violin.

In the 1980s, he shifted his focus to teaching, although he continued to record, on soundtracks such as The Dead Pool, in 1988, and Ice Age, released in 2002.

In 2004, he was a guest at the Chautauqua Music Festival and won the Distinguished Teachers in the Arts Award from the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts.

He has taught at several venues, including his alma mater, the Aspen Music Festival and School, Bein & Fushi, the Colburn School of the Performing Arts, where he occupies the Jascha Heifetz Distinguished Violin Chair, and the USC Thornton School of Music, where he serves as an Associate Professor of Strings.

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