Book Signing: Is It So If You Think It's So?

“This is a refreshing, wide-ranging and imaginative book. Robbie Merfeld teaches chamber music as a humane art, one of personal interaction as well as musical discovery. I was delighted by the inventive and always pertinent analogies to nature, sports, and Hitchcock movies, among other things, and equally impressed by the soundness and subtlety of the musical thinking. This is a book for all musicians, teachers and music lovers to learn from and enjoy.” – Richard Goode, pianist

“With words that are as lyrical and spontaneous as his music, Robbie invites us to explore together that curious path between knowing and not knowing. For those with open ears and open minds, the journey is infinitely rewarding.” – Joseph Lin, First Violinist, Juilliard Quartet

“Robert Merfeld is a poet of the keyboard, a sensitive and perceptive musician, a gifted collaborator, and a passionate, generous, innovative educator. In this book, in which he shares a lifetime of insights, he goes beyond the comfortable boundaries of conventional music education and proposes novel and ingenious ways to understand the language of music, and to communicate its subtleties. I cannot recommend it too highly, not only for its educational value, but also as an autobiographical portrait of a truly unique artist.”  – Stanley Ritchie, Violinist & Distinguished Professor, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music

“peppered with gems of thoughtfulness, originality and wisdom” – Arnold Steinhardt, former First Violinist, Guarneri Quartet

“Robbie Merfeld brings a warm practical spirit to the coaching of chamber music. Rather than the worship of recorded/edited perfection, he honors the daring mistake,the unusual strategy, the experimental discovery. Chamber music, one of our most fragile, and rewarding communities, has a responsible counselor here.” – John Harbison, Pulitzer-prize winning composer, MIT Professor