Discipline: Music Composition

Harold Zabrack

Discipline: Music Composition
Region: Missouri
MacDowell Fellowships: 1966, 1968

Harold Zabrack (1928-1995), a composer, pianist, and educator.

Harold A. Zabrack was born in 1928 in St. Louis, MO. He studied piano at the Chicago Musical College, and was on the faculty there from 1949-51. He studied in West Germany from 1955-57 on a Fulbright Fellowship. Returning to St. Louis, Zabrack accepted a teaching position at Webster College (now University) from 1962-65. He was composer-in-residence at Macdowell in 1966 and 1968. He later taught at Westminster Choir College at Rider University in New Jersey.

In his career as a composer and performer, he appeared as a soloist in New York, St. Louis, San Diego, Milwaukee, Baton Rouge, and Vancouver, including a concert of 10 original compositions to benefit the St. Louis Effort on AIDS in 1993.

He published papers in The Journal of the American Liszt Society, Clavier, The American Music Teacher, and other journals.

Perhaps most significantly, he taught countless piano students, many of which continued careers in music and music education.

Studios

Barnard

Harold Zabrack worked in the Barnard studio.

Originally built near MacDowell's Union Street entrance, the Barnard Studio — which was funded by Barnard College music students — was re-located to its current site in 1910. When the small structure was moved, its size was doubled with the addition of a second room. This remodeling, financed by Mrs. Thomas E. Emery of Cincinnati…

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