By JAMES BARRON
c.2010 New York Times News Service
The pianist Robert Taub was puttering around the house one afternoon in 2004 while his teenage daughter was practicing for a violin lesson – a Schubert sonatina in A minor. His assessment of her playing was diplomatic: “She needed to be reminded about notes and rhythms.”
What followed was a brainstorm that explains why Taub – who made his reputation playing two distinctly different B’s, Beethoven and Milton Babbitt – has put his performing on hold, and why “software entrepreneur” now tops his resume.
“I thought, wouldn’t it be wonderful if she could take a photograph of her page of music and hear it instantaneously,” he recalled. “She’d know what the right notes are, and what the right rhythms are, and she could imitate what she heard.”