1928 - 1995
Surely, now, we appreciate the fact of breathing — and the inevitable quality of “relatedness” implied in this action — as essential to the life of the musical as well as to the life of the human organism. It might well be considered the life-force in music.
— Harold Zabrack, The American Music Teacher
In this writer's esthetic, the conscious negation of relatedness between each of the twelve chromatic tones of the scale was the beginning of real musical experimentation. A very dangerous experimentation indeed!
— Harold Zabrack, The American Music Teacher
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.
