NVMTA Lecture Series

Gabriel Dobner joined the faculty at James Madison University as Professor of Piano and Collaborative Piano in the fall of 2001.  Previous teaching engagements include Indiana University and the Nürnberg/Augsburg Hochschule für Musik in Germany. In 2017, Mr. Dobner joined faculty of AIMS in Graz (American Institute of Musik) which takes place each summer in Austria. 

Mr. Dobner holds a BM degree from the Chicago Musical College of Roosevelt University in Chicago, where he studied with Ludmila Lazar. He went on to study at Indiana University with Leonard Hokanson where he received his MM and DMA degrees. Mr. Dobner also studied in Vienna for two semesters with Paul Badura-Skoda, concentrating on the works of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. 

1993 marked the beginning of Mr. Dobner’s nine years of living in Germany, after having been awarded a German Scholarship to study in Munich with Helmut Deutsch.  The following year he won the collaborative pianist’s prize in the International Hans Pfitzner Lieder Competition held in Munich. While living in Augsburg, Mr. Dobner quickly established himself, having played a number of solo and piano four-hand recitals with Lori Piitz throughout Germany.  Mr Dobner quickly became a very sought-after collaborative pianist, performing regularly with Germany’s best singers, such as Cornelia Kallisch, Gerhard Siegel and René Kollo. These musical collaborations led to performances throughout the world, including the United States, Europe, Japan and South Korea. Mr. Dobner has also performed with instrumentalists Lawrence Dutton (Emerson Quartet), Allan Vogel (Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra) and Ulf Rodenhäuser (formerly of the Berlin Philharmonic).

Gabriel Dobner has recorded for Ottavo, MDG and Hänssler Klassik.  His first recording for MDG, consisting of songs of Liszt, Dvorák and Mahler with Mezzo-Soprano Cornelia Kallisch, won high praise from BBC Music Magazine, referring to Mr. Dobner as a “master among collaborative pianists”. Mr. Dobner’s first recording with Metropolitan Opera Tenor, Gerhard Siegel was released in the fall of 2015 by Haenssler Klassik, a program featuring songs of Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg and Kurt Hessenberg.  The Duo released a second recording in the fall of 2019, also under the Haenssler label with songs of Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner. Mr. Dobner has also recorded extensively for radio broadcasts, including those for Saint Paul Sunday, the Bavarian Radio, Southwest German Radio, Middle German Radio, and the Chubo-Nippon Broadcasting Company in Japan.