Adelaide
and Edgar Roberts, duo-pianists, are enthusiastic scholars of piano literature
for four hands on one and two pianos. They have performed throughout New
York, Lincoln Center: Alice Tully Hall and Paul Hall, and along the Eastern
Seaboard, as well as in California, Italy, England, Denmark, Mexico, Hawaii
and Japan.
Edgar Roberts was born in Oklahoma. He had his own solo piano program on the
Texas State Network and on radio station WFAA-WBAP in Dallas and Fort Worth,
Texas where he was awarded First Prize of the Mickwitz Award and the Dealey
Award, which entailed three performances with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
His appearances have included over three hundred piano concerts in the Southwest,
along the Eastern Seaboard and in Hawaii as well as in New York, where he appeared
in a performance to benefit the New York Shakespeare Festival, played a debut
recital at the venerable Carnegie Hall, and was engaged by Mrs. Eleanor Roosevelt
to play three recitals, the last in 1961. Mr. Roberts holds BS and MS degrees
from The Juilliard School, where he has been on the piano faculty of the Pre-College
Division since 1946. He is also a piano faculty member and Adjunct Professor
of the Department of Music and Performing Arts Professions of New York University
since 1969. From 1970 to 1978, he was appointed Coordinator and Conductor of
the Soloists Collegium of the International Bach Society, founded and directed
by world renowned artist, Rosalyn Tureck. Monthly master classes were given
by Mr . Roberts, in this capacity, at the Bruno Walter Auditorium of the Library
of the Performing Arts in Lincoln Center.
Adelaide Roberts was born and raised in New York. She attended the Pre-College
Division of The Juilliard School and received her AB degree from Georgian
Court College in Lakewood, New Jersey. Her Master's degree in Music was awarded
by Syracuse University. Further graduate studies were pursued in Italy at the
University of Florence and the University of Siena, as well as at New York University.
Mrs. Roberts is also a faculty member of the Pre-College Division of The Juilliard
School.
For the past forty years, Mrs. Roberts has been performing with her husband
and teaching privately. She has performed on a number of occasions on "Young
American Artists" on radio station WNYC in New York, and has given numerous
solo recitals in New York and New Jersey. The Roberts have performed frequently
on Public Radio Stations WAMC in Albany, N.Y., WMHT in Schenectady, N.Y.
and WNYC in New York City. They have also performed on television in New York,
Hawaii and Mexico. They have produced four CD's entitled "What's Sarong with
Piano Duets", Volumes I and II, manufactured by SONY and released in February,
1995, and two more CD's, Volumes III and IV in December, 1996. Heritage Research
Productions, Inc. in Honolulu, Hawaii, has produced two video cassettes of Adelaide
and Edgar Roberts, "Four Hands on One and Two Pianos". Robert Starer's "Night
Thoughts" for vocal quartet and piano four hands was recorded on CD by Adelaide
and Edgar Roberts and a vocal quartet from The Juilliard School, and released
by Albany Records.
Mr. and Mrs. Roberts attended master classes conducted by Maestro Guido Agosti
at Accademia Chigiana in Siena, Italy from 1982 through 1986, at which
time they also studied privately with Maestro Agosti in Siena and Rome.