Pianist Mary Robbins has spent much of her life performing and studying Mozart’s music, ever searching for greater clarity in its communication. She has also performed chamber and solo repertoire in many other musical styles, including solo concerts in France of music by contemporary French composers.  Her ongoing work on identifying and representing Mozart’s individual style first received international recognition in 1991, when she presented a paper at the International Bicentennial Mozart Congress in Salzburg on Mozart's cadenzas for his piano concertos. That year she also became principal pianist for A. Mozart Fest concerts in Austin, Texas, and actively performed Mozart’s music in public concerts for 18 years.  She continues to enjoy performing Mozart today.

As a composer, her interest in the faithful stylistic representation of Mozart’s music led to her compose 26 Cadenzas, Lead-ins and Embellishments that follow the style of Mozart's own for his six late piano concertos where his cadenzas have not survived.  She has also composed cadenzas for other instrumental concertos, including for Mozart's Horn Concertos K.495 and K.417, and Concert Rondo K.371.  These works, and her completion of Mozart's unfinished sonata for four hands, K.357, will be made available on this site.  Other compositions in Mozart’s style include her simple pieces for training to play the types of sounds indicated by Mozart’s markings of expression, as a part of her method for performing his music thusly (to be made available on this site).

As a pedagogue, she has given presentations on the profound interpretive directives of Mozart's notational markings to various groups such as the Mozart Society of America, the American Musicological Association (in collaboration with the Mozart Stiftung), and Music Teachers National Association at national and state-level conferences, and local MTA chapters.  Dr. Robbins coaches performers and teachers on Mozart performance in workshops and individual sessions.  She is writing a method for teachers, performers and students of all levels for producing—on the modern piano—the specific types of sounds and sound relationships that Mozart’s expression markings indicate. 

She received a Doctorate of Musical Arts in piano performance from the University of Texas at Austin, and she earlier attended the Converse College School of Music.  The many teachers who have inspired her work—through both their teaching, performing and musicianship—include John Elvin, Nancy Marsh Wright, George Lucktenberg, William Race, Danielle Martin, Gregory Allen, Amanda Vick Lethco, Elliott Antokoletz, John Perry, William Doppmann, and Malcolm Bilson. She is especially grateful to the generous personal mentorship of Paul Badura-Skoda over the past two decades, as well as initially through his book, Interpreting Mozart, co-authored with Eva Badura-Skoda. Following in the footsteps of these important musicians and their influence, Dr. Robbins is delighted to share her joyous discoveries of Mozart’s music with you!