Peter Dobrin

Peter Dobrin is a classical music critic for The Inquirer. Since 1989, he has written music reviews, features, news and commentary for the paper, covering such topics as the Philadelphia Orchestra's 64-day strike in 1996, the development of a new performing arts center in Philadelphia, changes in the classical-recording industry and the finances of Philadelphia's arts organizations.

He has also covered the Philadelphia Orchestra's tours in Asia, South America and the United States. Dobrin was a French horn player. He earned an undergraduate degree in performance from the University of Miami, and received a master's degree in music criticism from the Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University, where he studied with Elliott Galkin. His work has also appeared in the Baltimore Sun and the Washington Post.

Read his blog "ArtsWatch" to find out who's making news, noise and splash in the Philadelphia arts world and beyond.

Read Peter's blog Arts Watch
Latest post: The Duchess is fabulous - the opera is, too - 06/10/2013
Email Peter at pdobrin@phillynews.com

Pianist Marcus Roberts offered a Nero-led remix of "Rhapsody in Blue."

Nero makes a fully formed artistic statement

By Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Music Critic

02/12/2013

Whatever else it has meant to listeners in its three-plus decades, the Philly Pops has never been known as a hotbed of innovation. By the way, what was that piece they played Sunday at the Kimmel Center, the one Peter Nero said was written by Gershwin, the one he called Rhapsody in Blue?

What's that silence?: A Center City bell is quieted for repairs
James DePreist, 76, orchestra conductor

Blogosphere 02/07/2013: Excerpts from the blogs of Inquirer critics.

Bong, bong: Founder's Bell tolls a bit; help's on the way From "ArtsWatch," the blog of Inquirer music critic Peter Dobrin, at www.philly.com/artswatch
What's that silence?: A Center City bell is quieted for repairs 02/05/2013: By Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Music Critic

Something is missing. Something obvious. Usually, it's so obvious you can't avoid it - in Center City, or leaching out into the neighborhoods and suburbs.
Range, strength, intensity of soprano Susanna Phillips 02/04/2013: By Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Music Critic

Is there such a thing as the perfect soprano? It wasn't spotless technique that impressed most Friday night under the microscope that is the American Philosophical Society's small Benjamin Franklin Hall.
Theater's stagehands reach pact, end strike 02/02/2013: By Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Culture Writer

The three-year contract is a first for those working behind the scenes at the Philadelphia Theater Company.
Chamber recital was murky 02/01/2013: By Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Music Critic

The last ghostly notes evaporated, bare suggestions of pitch-specific wind, really. And then without pause, Jennifer Koh headed into Brahms' Violin Sonata in D minor with pianist Shai Wosner. Were they trying to establish some relationship between the Brahms and the piece before, György Kurtág's Tre Pezzi? Did they elide the works to ensure that Wednesday night's Perelman Theater audience didn't curdle the peace with applause?
St. Lawrence Quartet at the Perelman 01/30/2013: By Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Music Critic

The good salesman cloaks his charm in virtuous clothing. The great one lets you see the pitch, and yet through some act of charisma make you feel buoyed in having assented to both the sale and his crafty methods.
Hugh Jackman shines at The Academy Ball 01/27/2013: By Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Music Critic

Saturday night, no one was safe from the charms of Hugh Jackman. As guest for the Academy of Music's 156th Anniversary Concert and Ball, the Australian actor sang a few songs and waved his wit around stage. He bumped fists with the concertmaster and dedicated a tune, "Soliloquy" from Rodgers and Hammerstein's Carousel, to his father.
Philadelphia Theater Company workers' strike continuing 01/24/2013: By Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Culture Writer

Scenes from a strike: A nighttime projectionist set up in the middle of Broad Street, beaming antimanagement messages onto a building. Protesters with strike placards facing the plateglass windows of a theater lobby while staring down audience members inside. A labor dispute in which both sides appropriate the messages of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Clarinetist's style echoes the human voice 01/22/2013: By Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Music Critic

Does it matter why we hear the musicians we do? With its deep relationships and pedagogical bloodlines, Philadelphia risks a certain provincialism and clubbiness every time an artist steps out on stage.
Phila. Orchestra coming back to regional radio 01/19/2013: By Peter Dobrin, Inquirer Music Critic

It's not the restoration of a national radio presence, but starting Feb. 24 the Philadelphia Orchestra will return to regional radio under the terms of a new deal with WRTI-FM (90.1).