DUBAL, David 1944–

PERSONAL: Born March 31, 1944, in Cleveland, Ohio; son of Sanford H. and Sylvia (Miller) Dubal. Education: Attended Juilliard School of Music (now Juilliard School) and Ohio State University; studied piano with Arthur Loesser.

ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY. Office—WQXR-Radio, 122 5th Ave., New York, NY 10011.

CAREER: New York Institute for the Education of the Blind, New York, NY, member of piano faculty, 1966–67; WNCN-Radio, New York, NY, music director and producer, 1967–90, host of weekly program "For the Love of Music," and originator of programs, including "Aaron Copland Comments" and "The Musical Offer-ing"; WXQR-Radio, New York, NY, host of "Reflections from the Keyboard" and "The American Century." Concert pianist; recordings include The Piano in America, Music of the Romantic Pianist-Composer, and Invitation to the Waltz. Lecturer at Manhattan School of Music, 1975–80, 1995–; member of faculty at Juilliard School, 1983–; gives lectures and recitals in the United States.

MEMBER: Bohemian Club.

AWARDS, HONORS: George Foster Peabody Award, School of Journalism at University of Georgia, 1980, for six part series "Conversations with Horowitz"; Housewright Eminent Scholar, Florida State University; Emmy Award and Golden Apple Award, both 1994, for The Golden Age of the Piano; Deems Taylor Award for Broadcast Journalism, American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, 1986.

WRITINGS:

Reflections from the Keyboard: The World of the Concert Pianist, Summit Books (New York, NY), 1984.

The Art of the Piano, Summit Books (New York, NY), 1989.

Evenings with Horowitz: A Personal Portrait, Carol Publishing Group (New York, NY), 1991.

Conversations with Menuhin, Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (New York, NY), 1992.

(Compiler and editor) Remembering Horowitz: 125 Pianists Recall a Legend, Maxwell Macmillan International (New York, NY), 1993.

(Compiler and editor) Album of American Piano Music: From the Civil War through World War I: For Piano, International Music (New York, NY), 1995.

The Essential Canon of Classical Music, North Point Press (New York, NY), 2001.

Contributor to magazines, including Keynote, Musical Heritage Review, and American Record Guide. Contributing editor of Piano Quarterly. Creator of video The Golden Age of the Piano.

SIDELIGHTS: David Dubal is a faculty member of the Juilliard School and performs piano recitals throughout the United States. He also served as the classical radio station program director for WNCN in New York, NY, for more than twenty years. He brings his love for classical music and his personal experiences as a musician to the books that he has written.

Evenings with Horowitz: A Personal Portrait is a compilation of interviews that Dubal conducted with the acclaimed pianist, Vladimir Horowitz. Between 1985 and 1988, Dubal visited Horowitz at his home on a weekly basis; this was a notable event, for Horowitz was very reclusive and rarely granted interviews. A reviewer from Publishers Weekly remarked: "Dubal presents a candid portrait of Horowitz … as well as a sensitive appraisal of his playing."

Several years later, Dubal followed that work with Remembering Horowitz: 125 Pianists Recall a Legend. After Horowitz's death, Dubal asked 125 pianists, most of whom had either met, played for, or studied with Horowitz, to write down their impressions of him. The essays include personal anecdotes about Horowitz and "range from the few lines of simple appreciation by Mieczyslaw Horszowsky" to thoughtful studies of Horowitz's unique style and musical ability by Emanuel Ax and Russell Sherman. In Publishers Weekly, a writer commented that Dubal's work "help[s] to recreate the magic spell [Horowitz] cast over his audiences." Donald Manildi, a reviewer from the American Record Guide, noted: "Dubal deserves much credit for assembling this provocative and illuminating volume."

Prior to writing Reflections from the Keyboard: The World of the Concert Pianist, Dubal held conversations with thirty-six well-known pianists, including Glenn Gould, Ruth Laredo, Misha Dichter, and Alicia de Larrocha. Some of the artists' answers to Dubal's questions are uncomfortable, self-deprecating, or funny, but they are always illuminating, claim reviewers. In the American Record Guide, John Bell Young said that Dubal is a "shrewd interlocutor…. [H]e is direct and knows how to aim a question for the most revealing response." Young also noted: "Mr. Dubal has written an endlessly fascinating book. Psychoanalysts will love it as much as pianists."

The Essential Canon of Classical Music, published in 2001, is a "lifetime listening plan" intended to interest both new listeners and experienced aficionados of classical music. In this work, Dubal discusses 240 compos-ers and includes lists of recordings of their works. Larry Lipkis, of the Library Journal, mentioned that while twentieth century composers are well represented, only fourteen pre-Baroque composers are included, and he considered that to be "a woefully inadequate representation." Despite that, Lipkis stated that The Essential Canon of Classical Music "is a valuable resource." A reviewer from Publishers Weekly commented that in this work, Dubal undertook a monumental task and "brought it off better than might have been expected," noting that "the book's usefulness and comprehensiveness cannot be denied."

Dubal once commented to CA: "As a concert pianist I've recorded twenty-five composers on five albums, and each album has a programming theme. I'm interested in bringing to the public a knowledge of the many fine works for the piano—beyond the standard repertory. The Art of the Piano is an assessment of great pianists from Muzio Clementi to those of the present. The second part of the book includes a vast discography.

"My book Reflections from the Keyboard: The World of the Concert Pianist is a collection of interviews with thirty-five celebrated pianists such as Vladimir Horowitz, Glenn Gould, Alicia De Larrocha, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Claudio Arrau, and Alfred Brendel." Dubal added that he was pleased that a New York Times Book Review critic called the book "a key boardists' 'Canterbury Tales.'"

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Dubal, David, The Essential Canon of Classical Music, North Point Press (New York, NY), 2001.

PERIODICALS

American Music Teacher, October, 1990, review of The Art of the Piano, p. 18; April, 1993, review of Evenings with Horowitz: A Personal Portrait, p. 72; June-July, 1993, review of Conversations with Menuhin, p. 60; April, 1994, review of Remembering Horowitz: 125 Pianists Recall a Legend, p. 88.

American Record Guide, July-August, 1992, review of Evenings with Horowitz, p. 301; November-December, 1993, Donald Manildi, review of Remembering Horowitz, p. 88; July-August, 1998, John Bell Young, review of Reflections from the Keyboard: The World of the Concert Pianist, p. 292.

Booklist, March 1, 1990, review of The Art of the Piano, p. 1378; November 15, 1991, review of Evenings with Horowitz, p. 591; December 15, 1991, review of Conversations with Menuhin, p. 741; October 1, 1993, review of Remembering Horowitz, p. 240.

Choice, April, 1990, review of The Art of the Piano, p. 1297; December, 1992, review of Conversations with Menuhin, p. 627.

Fanfare, January, 1996, review of The Art of the Piano, p. 455.

Library Journal, September 1, 1989, review of The Art of the Piano, p. 182; November 1, 1991, review of Evenings with Horowitz, p. 100; January 1992, review of Conversations with Menuhin, p. 130; September 15, 1993, review of Remembering Horowitz, p. 79; June 15, 2001, Larry Lipkis, review of The Essential Canon of Classical Music, p. 62.

New York Times Book Review, December 30, 1984; February 16, 1986, review of Reflections from the Keyboard, p. 32; January 27, 1991, review of The Art of the Piano, p. 18; July 26, 1992, review of Evenings with Horowitz, p. 14.

Publishers Weekly, October 11, 1991, review of Evenings with Horowitz, p. 55; January 6, 1992, review of Conversations with Menuhin, p. 54; August 30, 1993, review of Remembering Horowitz, p. 82; August 6, 2001, review of The Essential Canon of Classical Music, p. 79.

Times Literary Supplement, January 25, 1991, review of The Art of the Piano, p. 18; May 7, 1993, review of Evenings with Horowitz, p. 11.

Washington Post Book World, December 23, 1984.