Curtis Macomber

A specialist in modern compositions, violinist Curtis Macomber excels both as a chamber musician and as a solo performer, having taken part in several hundred world premieres. He also stands out as an influential teacher.

Born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, Macomber spent his childhood in the adjacent town of Fairhaven. He earned his bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees at New York’s Juilliard School, where he trained under Joseph Fuchs and captured two institutional prizes. Over the years he has appeared with numerous prominent American chamber ensembles, covering both standard repertory and new music. In 1982 he became a member of the New World String Quartet and stayed until 1993, serving during that period as artist-in-residence at Harvard University, touring throughout the United States and Europe, and contributing to fourteen recordings. He also helped establish the Apollo Piano Trio, entered the Da Capo Chamber Players in 2007 and the Manhattan String Quartet in 2011, and belongs to the New York Chamber Soloists. Regular performances with Speculum Musicae have been complemented by work with the Group for Contemporary Music, the Sea Cliff Chamber Players, and the New York New Music Ensemble. Among the many world premieres he has given are pieces by Elliott Carter, George Perle, and Mario Davidovsky.

As a soloist he has recorded for CRI, Arabesque, Bridge, and additional labels, encompassing both classic and contemporary works. His accounts of the Grieg and Brahms violin sonatas feature pianists Marija Stroke and Derek Han respectively, while a 2015 release presented Morton Feldman’s Piano, Violin, Viola, Cello. Four years later he joined soprano Susan Narucki on the album Edge of Silence: Works for Voice by György Kurtág. Since 1994 he has taught violin at the Manhattan School of Music, and since 1998 he has instructed chamber music at the Juilliard School.