A Tribute to Robert Mann

Robert Mann and the Meaning of his Legacy

A version of the following tribute by Mann’s JSQ colleagues originally appeared on the Violin Channel and appears by permission.

We, the remaining Juilliard Quartet colleagues of Robert Mann, deeply mourn his passing. We send our condolences to his dear wife, Lucy, to the family, to all his friends, and to all his former students, who had the good fortune to be guided and inspired by him, as we were. His students are, of course, such a wonderful and important part of his legacy.

In today’s world, it may be hard for some to comprehend the deep significance of Robert Mann’s legacy. Bobby devoted himself passionately and daily to insight of all kinds, hungry as he was to experience the joy of discovery at every possible moment.

Rehearsals with Bob Mann were always a highly energized search for beauty, order, coherence, insight, truth, and catharsis, a seemingly unlikely mix of things. Almost in contrast, performances with Bobby were passionate abandon in the service of the composers’ imaginations while holding the ship steady toward its goal. Bobby deeply respected and understood the necessary interplay of rational and irrational thought and feeling requisite to great art of any kind, and he helped each of us welcome both into our musical and personal lives, expression, and process.

Chamber players are the peacemakers of music, musicians who reject the “older” model of heroism to replace it with the heroism of the peacemaker: s/he who struggles to promote understanding through shared honest interaction. Bob Mann, you were our general, leading us into musical battle for the “musical” common good.

We would like to ask the student who reads these words to ponder and try to grasp just how much patient hard work, listening, honesty, self-appraisal, and love of music it takes to become a Robert Mann. The hard work is not to be underestimated. And the motivation was pure: to be worthy of the genius of the composer.

Sadly, most critics were never able to recognize Robert Mann’s most important asset: his great and innate ability to sing on the violin and render unforgettable performances of the quartet literature’s most intimate and lyrical phrases and moments, whether the Cavatina from Op. 130, the Largo of Op. 135, the slow movement of Ravel and Debussy quartets or the Largo of Haydn’s Op. 76 no. 5. The voice was always his own: plain-spoken, loving, vulnerable, always generously reaching out.

We each feel so lucky to have shared a good portion of our lives, musical and nonmusical, with this amazing and wonderful human being. And though Bobby is with us no longer, we will ever feel his beneficent influence and will continue to share his memory and legacy with all who will listen.

Rest in peace, dear Bobby.

Violinist Earl Carlyss (BS and MS ’64; JSQ 1966–1986), violist Samuel Rhodes (JSQ 1969-2013), cellist Joel Krosnick (JSQ 1974–2016), and violinist Joel Smirnoff (BM ’75, MM ’76; JSQ 1986–2009) are all on the faculty

Read Robert Mann's obituary in the Journal