At 92 years of age, Robert Mann has been a driving force in the world of music for more than seventy years. As founder and first violinist of the Juilliard String Quartet, and as a soloist, composer, teacher, and conductor, Mr. Mann has brought a refreshing sense of adventure and discovery to chamber music performances, master classes, and orchestral performances worldwide. In 1946, at the invitation of Juilliard’s president, William Schuman, Robert Mann founded the Juilliard String Quartet, serving as the ensemble’s first violinist for 51 years until his retirement from the Quartet. The Juilliard String Quartet, which celebrated its golden jubilee during the 1996–97 season, performed approximately 5,000 concerts and more than 600 works, including some 100 premieres, with Mr. Mann. The Quartet’s discography, the recipient of three Grammy awards, includes recordings of more than 100 compositions.

In the 2012–2013 season, the Mann Quartet—Robert Mann and Peter Winograd, Violin, Nicholas Mann, Viola, and David Geber, Cello—made their debut as a quartet on March 10, 2013, at Manhattan School of Music. Manhattan School of Music also hosts the Robert Mann String Quartet Institute, inaugurated in 2012, in which promising young string quartets, chosen by Mr. Mann, take part in master classes with him and receive intensive daily coachings.

Mr. Mann has conducted throughout his professional career, leading ensembles such as the New York Chamber Symphony, MSM Symphony, and ensembles at the Ravinia, Tanglewood, and Aspen music festivals. He is a mentor to younger generations of string players, including the Alexander, American, Concord, Emerson, LaSalle, New World, Mendelssohn, Tokyo, Brentano, Lark, St. Lawrence, and Colorado string quartets. In December 2009, Manhattan School of Music heralded him with an evening of chamber music, bringing together ten string quartets who paid homage with musical performances that celebrated their colleague, mentor, teacher, and friend. Mr. Mann received the Lifetime Achievement Grammy Award in 2011.

He is on the faculty of Manhattan School of Music and has served as president of the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation since 1971. At the invitation of Seiji Ozawa, he has been in residence at Japan’s Saito Kinen Music Festival as a conductor, teacher, and performer. Robert Mann is married to Lucy Rowan Mann.