The career of Robert Rozek has included performances and recordings with the greatest names in music. As a violinist and conductor Mr. Rozek performed with singers such as Pavoratti, Careras, Mariella Freni and Cecelia bartoli. In New York, Rozek spent ten years in the Pop and Jazz field recording and performing with artists such as Frank Sinatra, Richard Clayderman, Ray Charles, Barbara Streisand, Quincy Jones and Louis Armstrong. In Miami, Mr. Rozek also recorded with many Latin Jazz and Pop stars , such as Julio and Enrique Iglesias, Ricky Martin, Selena, Shakira and Gloria Estefan. It was also in Miami that Mr. Rozek worked with Michael Jackson in some of his last recordings.
Robert Rozek is a graduate of the Juilliard School of Music where he studied the violin with Ivan Galamian and Dorothy Delay. He continued his studies at the Academia Chigiana of Siena, Italy. There he studied violin with Franco Gulli and conducting with Sergiu Celibidache. Later he studied the violin with Nathan Milstein in New York, London and Zurich, Switzerland.
Mr. Rozek’s early performances include the Mendelssohn concerto and the Lalo Symphonie Espagnole with the Zurich symphony Orchestra at age 14. His formal concert debut was performed with Alexander Schneider conducting his chamber orchestra in New York. Mr. Rozek was then 16 years old, and performed the third and fifth concertos of Mozart. At that time, Rozek won the first prize in the New York All State Concertmaster Conpetition. As a protege of Alexander Schneider, Mr. Rozek studied and performed chamber music with the greatest musicians of the 20th century including members of the Juilliard and Budapest Quartets. He was very fortunate to come under the influence of Pablo Casals with whom he performed at the Marlboro Music Festival in the United States.
While a student at Juilliard, Mr. Rozek made his Carnegie Hall debut in the Mendelssohn concerto in 1967 with the Claremont Chamber Orchestra of New York. Upon graduating from Juilliard Mr. Rozek performed as a soloist and chamber musician in The United States and Europe. He gave the first chamber music concert at New York’s Lincoln Center at the opening of Alice Tully Hall. He was soloist with the New York City Chamber Orchestra umder Rafael Adler appearing at the Helsinki Music Festival. He appeared as soloist with the San Francisco Symphony. He also toured extensively in Italy as soloist with the Siena Summer Music Festival Orchestra.
Early in his career, Mr.Rozek moved to Zurich, Switzerland to assume the post of Leader of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. At this time while in the midst of a very busy concert schedule which included all of Europe, Rozek did extensive studies with the great Nathan Milstein.With Milstein Rozek restudied the entire violin repetoire. While in Zurich as leader of the chamber orchestra, Mr.Rozek performed with most of the great artists of that time. He toured England with Yehudi Menuhin and was leader of the Menuhin Festival Orchestra in Gstaad Switzerland. With Maurice Andre, Rozek introduced the concertos of Vivaldi for trumpet and violin as arranged by Mr. Andre. While in Zurich Mr. Rozek appeared at the Zurich Tonhalle Concert Hall with artitsts such as Claudio, Arrau, Martha Argerich, James Galway, Benedetti Michelangeli, Kiri-Te-Kanawa and Leonid Kogan.
After his post in Zurich Mr. Rozek went on to begin a conducting career in addition to his solo appearances. His conducting appearances include the Luzern Music Festival,where he conducted the concert celebrating the reopening of Wagner’s home in Luzern, Switzerland. Rozek also conducted the Arturo Toscanini Orchestra of Italy in concert and operatic performances in the cities of northern Italy. Artists with whom he worked at this time include Luciano Pavarotti with whom he also toured Russia, inlcluding the cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg, and an appearance with Jose Careras in a benefit concert for International Cancer Research. He appeared at the reopening of the Modena Opera House with Mirella Freni and also worked with Cecelia Bartoli in her early career.
Mr. Rozek’s teaching career began in New York. He held positions at the Barlow School, Columbia University, the State University of New York, Hamilton College and Colgate University. In the 1990’s until 2003 Mr. Rozek was professor of violin at the University of Miami School of Music. At this time he conducted the chamber orchestra, taught string pedagogy and headed the Summer String program in Europe. From 2003 to 2010 , Robert Rozek was Head of the Violin Department at the Vancouver Academy Music in Canada. He was professor in the college division teaching masterclasses in violin, teaching conducting, chamber music and conducted opera performances for the vocal department.
He also travels the world giving concerts and teaching. Recently Mr. Rozek has appeared at the Baratt Due Music Institute, Norway, the University of BC and the Beijing Union University and the Conservatory of Wuhan, China. In Switzerland Mr. Rozek has taught for the past 10 years at the Margess International School. He now teaches at the newly formed Astona-International summer music academy for gifted string players. He has also taught masterclasses in London for the Razumovsky Academy. His recent solo appearances inlcude the Prokofief, Bruch, and Dvorak concertos and the Brahms concerto in Switzerland, Norway and Canada. His recent performances of the solo works of Bach and Paganini have been critically acclaimed throughout Europe and the far East.
This season Mr. Rozek has conducted film music for Lion’s Gate Productions in Vancouver Canada. He has appeared as music director in Rome, Italy in a concert featuring Italian pop stars such as Ricchi e Poveri , Zucchero and special appearance by Shania Twain produced by Quincy Jones. In August, Mr. Rozek recorded music for upcoming motion pictures with the well-known recording orchestra of Prague, Czech Republic. Later this season Mr. Rozek will be appearing in Europe in the role of teacher-performer on the violin in Oslo and Bergen, Norway at the Barratt Due Institute of Music. In Switzerland he will give concerts and materclasses at the Einsiedeln Abbey near Zurich.