Robert Stallman (June 12, 1946 - May 12, 2019) earned recognition for the unusual creativity of his long and distinguished career as a solo artist, chamber musician, recording artist, and master teacher. Stallman regularly performed at New York’s Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall, London's Wigmore Hall, Vienna's Konzerthaus and Tokyo's Suntory Hall; at festivals such as Mostly Mozart (New York), Musique à Cimiez (France), Ceský Krumlov (Czech Republic), and Kuhmo (Finland); and as a soloist with the American Symphony, Strings of the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic, and numerous chamber orchestras.
Stallman graduated from the New England Conservatory with two degrees and the school’s top prize, the Chadwick Medal. Mentored by Jean-Pierre Rampal early on, he went to Paris as a Fulbright scholar to study with Rampal, Alain Marion, and Gaston Crunelle at the Paris Conservatoire. His honors included a soloist grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, a Koussevitsky Fellowship, the C.D. Jackson Prize at Tanglewood, and listings in many ‘Who’s Who’ publications.
Stallman collaborated with many chamber ensembles during this career, including the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Alexander, the Mendelssohn, the Muir and the Orion Quartets in the US, as well as the St. Lawrence Quartet of Canada, the Artis Quartet of Vienna, and both the Vlach and the Martinu Quartets of the Czech Republic. Stallman was a special guest in Vienna’s celebration of the Mozart 250th Anniversary, joined by the Martinu Quartet in the Schubertsaal, performing his Mozart arrangements to warm acclaim.
In 1977, Stallman founded the Cambridge Chamber Players and the Marblehead Summer Music Festival in Massachusetts, where, for twenty years, he created a unique series of chamber music concerts that were broadcast regularly on WGBH and called “special occasions in every sense of the word” by The Boston Globe. It was for these concerts that Stallman began to refine his skills as an arranger and to expand the chamber music repertoire for flute with his re-creation of works by Mozart, Schubert, Bach, Beethoven, Dvorak, Mendelssohn, and others. He created over 70 publications, making him the preeminent editor and arranger of flute music of his generation. His communicative gifts also inspired composers. Major works dedicated to Stallman include the Dodgson and McKinley Flute Concertos, both recorded by him, and Kukal’s new “Flautianna” Concerto, which he premiered in 2009 and 2010 with the Czech Chamber Orchestra.
Stallman's credits as a recording artist include his widely praised releases for ASV, VAI, Sony, MHS, Biddulph, and other labels. In 2006, Stallman and his wife, Hannah Woods, founded the Bogner's Café label, bringing Stallman's esteemed arrangements of works by classical composers to new audiences. The label's inaugural release, "Mozart-Stallman New Quintets for Flute and Strings" (2007), which Stallman recorded with the Martinu Quartet and violist Karel Untermüller, was aired on NPR's "Performance Today" and "Weekend Edition" and has become an enduring favorite on classical radio stations across the US. "New Schubert Works for Flute & Strings" (2009) reunites these same musicians in the performance of three of Schubert's early works, re-created by Stallman as two Quartets and a Quintet.
Devoted to developing the next generations of musical talent, Stallman conducted numerous master classes at schools and venues across the U.S., as well as at Domaine Forget Académie and Montréal Conservatoire in Canada, National Conservatory of Mexico, Festival Internacional de Flautista in Brazil, Hochschule für Musik in Mannheim, Académie Internationale d’Eté in Nice, Ameropa Festival in Prague, Odessa Conservatory, Konitachi School of Music in Tokyo, and the Shanghai Conservatory. He also held positions at the New England Conservatory, Longy School, Boston Conservatory, Aaron Copland School of Music/CUNY, and Manhattan School of Music.
