A passionate advocate of new music, Robert Levin has commissioned and premiered numerous of works, including Joshua Fineberg’s Veils (2001), John Harbison’s Second Sonata (2003), Yehudi Wyner’s piano concerto Chiavi in mano (Pulitzer Prize, 2006), Bernard Rands’ Preludes (2007), Thomas Oboe Lee’s Piano Concerto (2007) and Hans Peter Türk’s Träume (2012).
Levin has been an artist teacher at the Sarasota Music Festival since 1979 and was its Artistic Director from 2007–2016. He has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and member of the Akademie für Mozartforschung. He is President of the International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition and was awarded the Bach Medal of the City of Leipzig in 2018. From 1993 to 2013 he was Dwight P. Robinson, Jr. Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University and is presently Visiting Professor at The Juilliard School.
Renowned for his improvised cadenzas in Classical period repertoire, Robert Levin has made recordings of a wide range of repertoire. His recordings include Bach’s complete keyboard concertos, the six English Suites and both books of the Well-Tempered Clavier, a Mozart concerto cycle with Academy of Ancient Music and Christopher Hogwood, the Beethoven concertos with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, the complete piano music of Dutilleux, Bernard Rands’ Preludes and Impromptu, and the complete Beethoven sonatas and variations for fortepiano and cello with Steven Isserlis. Recent releases include the six Bach Partitas and the complete Schubert piano trios with Noah Bendix-Balgley and Peter Wiley and the complete Mozart sonatas on Mozart’s Walter piano.
Mozart-tutkijana tunnetun Robert Levinin täydentämiä versioita Mozartin Requiemistä ja muista keskeneräisistä teoksista on äänitetty ja esitetty kaikkialla maailmassa. Vuonna 2005 Levinin versio Mozartin C-mollimessusta sai ensiesityksensä ja sitä on sittemmin kuultu laajalti Yhdysvalloissa ja Euroopassa. Levin on esiintynyt eri puolilla Yhdysvaltoja, Eurooppaa, Australiaa ja Aasiaa. Hän esiintyy usein myös vaimonsa, pianisti Ya-Fei Chuangin kanssa duona ja orkestereiden kanssa.
Robert Levin on tällä hetkellä vierailevana professorina The Juilliard Schoolissa sekä Taideyliopiston Sibelius-Akatemiassa.
