Robert Marcus, clarinet, and Edwin Light, piano

Enjoy works by Mozart, Prokofiev and Horowitz performed by clarinetist Robert Marcus and pianist Edwin Light.

Robert Marcus recently celebrated his 70th year of playing the clarinet. He began his studies in Los Angeles, and he received additional training at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara.

Although his primary career was in medicine, Dr. Marcus has been an active musician throughout his adult life in both orchestral and chamber music. His major orchestral affiliation was the Redwood Symphony on the San Francisco peninsula, with whom he appeared as soloist in the Mozart Clarinet Concerto, the 2nd Concerto by Miguel del Aguila, Gnarly Buttons by John Adams, and The Dreams and Prayers of Isaac the Blind by Osvaldo Golijov.

Dr. Marcus and his wife Ann retired to Santa Fe in 2009, and last fall moved to Palm Springs. While in Santa Fe he gave frequent recitals at St. John’s College and at First Presbyterian Church. In October 2012 he appeared as soloist in Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto with the Los Alamos Symphony, and in 2015 he returned to the Redwood Symphony as soloist to play a transcription by Luciano Berio of Brahms’ Clarinet Sonata in F minor for clarinet and orchestra.

Edwin Light grew up in Copperhill, Tennessee, where he had his first piano lessons at age 5. In high school he continued his music studies with Oina Mitchell, who encouraged him to attend the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. At C-CM he completed his Bachelor and Master’s degree programs in piano with Herbert Newman.

While teaching piano at Western Illinois University he began the doctoral program in piano at Boston University. Near the completion of the Doctor of Musical Arts degree, under the tutelage of Maria Clodes, he elected to stay on in Boston, where he taught at several community music schools and in the Humanities Department at Fitchburg State University. He coached German Lieder with Harold Heiberg in Vienna and French Melodie with Marguerite Meyerowitz at Juilliard.

Edwin honed his skills over the years as a collaborative pianist. He performed in Thun, Switzerland for three summers with soprano Scharmal Schrock (Indiana University), and with Swiss singers in a workshop of American music. He toured in the U.S. with violinist Almita Vamos (Northwestern University).

In New Mexico he has performed in the TGIF series in Santa Fe, the Abiquiu Chamber Music Festival and the State Convention of the New Mexico Piano Teachers Association. Edwin spends his spare time writing a memoir and traveling with his husband Jack Cox and their whippets Jake and Cooper.