Dobbs Franks, 1933 - 2023

Conductor, Pianist, Vocal Coach & Music Educator

Melbourne Piano School acknowledges Dobbs Franks for his life-long committment to the music community. Even in his late 80s, Dobbs was passionate about continuing to teach piano, generously sharing his extensive knowledge and experience with up and coming musicians. He joined the Melbourne Piano School team in 2020. ​

​Dobbs Franks was an internationally esteemed conductor, pianist, vocal coach and music educator with more than 50 years teaching experience.

Dobbs had his first piano lesson in Arkansas USA at the age of three and 17 years later earned his Masters in Piano at the prestigious Juilliard School of Music in New York City.

As a performer he has never stopped. The year after
graduating from Juilliard he toured for Columbia Artists as the pianist in a piano trio which performed in 49 of the 50 states of the USA over the next two years. He later married Ruth Pearl, the renowned English violinist and during the next 42 years they played sonata and chamber music concerts at venues around the world. 

As a solo pianist he recorded for television the Khachaturian Piano Concerto with the Sydney Symphony conducted by the late Patrick Thomas. He played the Gershwin Concerto in F with the Adelaide Symphony conducted by Jorge Mester and the Shostakovich 2nd and the Haydn D Major for television with the West Australian Symphony which he conducted from the piano. Among the many performances of the Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue which he conducted from the piano there was the popular one in the Sydney Opera House in the 1990s. He also played the Mozart Two Piano Concerto with Geoffrey Lancaster with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra.

Dobbs taught piano, voice, and conducting privately since the 1960s and was a guest lecturer at several universities. In 2012 he was appointed as Head of Classical Voice at Monash University's School of Music where he lectured until 2014. 

He is also author of the book So, You Want To Be A Musician.
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Music Qualifications:
Masters in Piano, Julliard School of Music, New York City
BMus in Piano (Honours) Hendrix College, USA

Dobbs Franks, internationally esteemed conductor, pianist and vocal coach, 1933 - 2023