Robert Durso is an Italian-American pianist and developed the teacher training program at the Golandsky Institute that professionally trains teachers in the Taubman Approach, where he is now the senior director and a faculty member. He has worked extensively with Dorothy Taubman and Edna Golandsky. Mr. Durso has also performed extensively, including appearances at Carnegie Recital Hall, the Toronto Music Festival, Temple University, the Philadelphia Art Alliance, and in a tour of South Carolina sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts. His engagements abroad have included concerts at La Chiesa della Palma in Cagliari, Sardinia where he premiered a work by Sardinian composer Roberto Mirigliano; the Palazzo Cenci in Rome; the Ehrbarsaal in Vienna; L’Atelier in Brussels, as well as concerts in Zurich, Taiwan, and Oxford, England. Mr. Durso has performed with the Yaquina Symphony Orchestra under the baton of David Ogden Stiers in a four-concert tour of the Oregon coast. He has performed and given master classes at the invitation of Paul Roberts at Castelfranc in France. He has conducted master classes and concerts at Mount Holyoke College, Portland State University, Berkeley Chapter of the San Francisco MTNA, Spokane Music Teachers Association, NEPTA in Boston, Tel Aviv, Israel and Rome. Mr. Durso was invited to Caracas, Venezuela by the US Embassy to present the work of Dorothy Taubman for the first time in South America.

He has produced several first place winners in national and international competitions, including, The Bartok/Kabelevsky International, Artist International, NYC, Bradshaw & Buono International Piano Competition 2014, The Joseph Suk International Piano Competition in Prague, The Ambler Symphony Young Artist Competition, The Princeton Piano Competition 2011 and 2015, The Cal Rudman Competition and The Marymount Concerto Competition, 16th International Gianluca Campochiaro Competition in Pedara, Sicily and International Piano Competition “Giuseppe Terracciano” Giffoni Valle Piana, Italy, 2007. His students have performed and participated in leading festivals including, The Aspen Music Festival, The Lake George Festival, The Brooklyn Art Song Society and the Portland Piano festival, among others.

Mr. Durso specializes in audition and competition preparation. His students have been accepted and have attended several of the leading conservatories, including the Curtis Institute, Juilliard School, Oberlin Conservatory, Indiana University, New England Conservatory and the Peabody Conservatory.