Abram Loft, distinguished professor emeritus of chamber music, served as chair of the string department and professor of chamber music at Eastman from 1979 until his retirement in 1986. A violinist and violist, he earned undergraduate and graduate degrees at Columbia University (Ph.D., musicology), where he taught music history from 1946 to 1954. He also lectured in music history at the Manhattan School of Music from 1951 to 1954. As a member of the Fine Arts Quartet from 1954 to 1979, he performed in concert throughout America, Canada, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the Far East, and served with that ensemble on the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee from 1963 to 1979. He left the quartet and UW-M (as distinguished professor emeritus) to come to Eastman. Dr. Loft has been a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of the American Musicological Society and of College Music Society’s Symposium, and contributor to the New Grove Dictionary of American Music. He is author of Violin and Keyboard: The Duo Repertoire, Ensemble!—A Rehearsal Guide to Thirty Great Works of Chamber Music; and How to Succeed in an Ensemble: Reflections on a Life in Chamber Music. His distinctions include the University of Rochester’s Edward P. Curtis Award for Undergraduate Teaching (1984) and the American String Teachers Association’s Distinguished Service Award (1993). He continued to serve as a competition judge and chamber music coach in America and abroad, until he died peacefully in his home on February 1, 2019, at age 97.
Eastman School of Music
