Mr. Starobin is a faculty member in the College for the following department(s) and division(s): Guitar (College) Telephone  (212) 749-2802  x4422 E-mail  dstarobin@msmnyc.edu

David Starobin was born in New York City, in 1951. He is a leading advocate of contemporary music, and more than 300 works for solo, chamber groups, and concertos have been composed for and dedicated to him. This body of work has helped to redefine the repertoire of the twenty-first-century guitarist. Among the distinguished list of composers who have written for Starobin are Elliott Carter, George Crumb, Poul Ruders, Mel Powell, Charles Wuorinen, Simon Bainbridge, Colin Matthews, Barbara Kolb, Richard Wernick, Roger Reynolds, Gunther Schuller, Milton Babbitt, Lukas Foss, Mario Davidovsky, and Michael Starobin, his brother. In 1981, David Starobin founded Bridge Records, Inc.. As recordings producer at Bridge, Starobin, along with his wife, Becky Starobin, has received eight Grammy nominations and, in 2001, a Grammy Award, as well as dozens of other awards and citations, from journals ranging from Guitar Player to Gramophone; from the Financial Times to Fanfare. David Starobin's solo CD, Newdance (BRIDGE 9084), received a Grammy nomination in 1998 and was later named Best Solo Classical CD of the Year, by the AFIM Indie Awards. His most recent solo CD is a collection performed on a 19th-century guitar: Sor & Giuliani (BRIDGE 9107). David Starobin began his guitar studies at age seven with Manuel Gayol, later working with Albert Valdes Blain and Aaron Shearer at the Peabody Conservatory of Music. While a student, Starobin worked closely with pianist Leon Fleisher and was a participant at Rudolf Serkin's Marlboro Music Festival. Among Starobin's honors are a Lincoln Center Avery Fisher Career Grant (1988), Harvard University's Fromm Foundation Grant, for "his commitment to the music of our time" (1984), and Peabody Conservatory's Distinguished Alumni Award (1999). Starobin is currently the chairman of the guitar department at Manhattan School of Music and is the holder of the school's Andrés Segovia chair. He was the director of the guitar program at the State University of New York at Purchase between 1977 and 1996 and has taught master classes at universities and conservatories throughout the United States and Europe. Manhattan School of Music faculty since 1993, serving as chair of guitar department from 1993-2004.

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