Ronald Jacobowitz

A native of New York City, Ronald Jacobowitz studied at the High School of Music and Art in New York and earned a Bachelor's degree in music at CCNY. He studied musicology as a Princeton University National Fellow, but went on to a Ph.D. in mathematics (algebraic number theory) there.

He joined the mathematics faculty of the University of Arizona in Tucson, at which time he began serious concertizing across the USA. From 1974-1984, he was music director of Tucson Chamber Music Cooperative, which presented a series of recitals in private homes, and he began developing a lecture-recital format. He retired from Arizona State University in 2000, as Emeritus Professor of Mathematics, giving him time to devote his entire attention to music.

ICAN has presented 47 Salon Concerts since November, 1997 featuring pianist Ronald Jacobowitz. These concerts were performed in private homes in metropolitan Phoenix and Tucson, to audiences ranging from 25 to 100 guests. We are very grateful for the continuing generosity of our ICAN Salon Concert hosts and hostesses, and for the inspired performances of Dr. Jacobowitz who has delighted our audiences for 12 years with both his breadth and depth of repertoire as well as his charming anecdotes.

Among the highlights were:

• The complete Beethoven piano sonatas (8 programs) and
• The complete Schubert (6 programs) piano sonatas.
• A lecture-recital series on Italian opera, in which Dr. Jacobowitz discussed plots, dialogue and history, and played the most riveting music.
• Lecture-recitals on musical and personal inter-relationships of Brahms and the Schumanns,
• Early and Melodious music of Liszt (largely unknown to concert audiences)
• A survey of the most significant piano music entitled "Around the World of Piano Music in 80 Minutes".

Upcoming Events featuring Ronald Jacobowitz

• A virtuoso program of music from the repertoire of Vladimir Horowitz.
• "Sources of Chopin's Style", a program planned for ICAN after it debuts in New Jersey and Israel in June.
• Piano transcriptions from duet or orchestral works made with the help of the music notation software Finale: both sets of Brahms Liebeslieder waltzes, Falla's Noches en los Jardines de España, and the Reger Variations on a Theme by Mozart which Dr. Jacobowitz last performed at Princeton University 50 years ago.