Robert Levin

The American keyboardist and musicologist Robert Levin is widely known for his expertise in Classical-era performance practice. He has completed several major unfinished works by Mozart and others. Levin studied both piano and composition with various prominent teachers in the U.S. and in France. His undergraduate thesis on Mozart's unfinished works at Harvard led to his immediate hiring as a professor at the Curtis Institute. He eventually returned to Harvard to teach in the 1990s. Levin made his recording debut, backing violist Kim Kashkashian on the release Elegies in 1986. He has continued to champion contemporary music in addition to his Classical-period emphasis. By the early 2020s, he had amassed a catalog of more than 40 recordings, covering Mozart, Beethoven, Bach, contemporary music, and various kinds of chamber music. He released a cycle of Mozart's keyboard sonatas, played on Mozart's own fortepiano, in 2022.