Charles Haubiel

Charles Trowbridge Haubiel (January 30, 1892 – August 26, 1978) was an American composer, pianist, and lecturer born in Delta, Ohio. His musical education began under his sister, Florence Pratt Morey, and continued in Berlin at age sixteen with Martin Krause and Rudolph Ganz. He later pursued further training in New York City, studying piano with Josef and Rosina Lhévinne, counterpoint with Rosario Scalero, and orchestration with Modest Altschuler.

Haubiel's teaching career in New York City spanned several decades. From 1921 to 1931 he held a piano faculty position at the Institute of Musical Art, the institution now known as Juilliard, and concurrently taught at New York University from 1923 to 1947. He also worked as a touring pianist and lecturer throughout his career.

His Broadway work includes an appearance in 1927 in The Immortal Beloved. During World War I, Haubiel was stationed in Paris, where in 1919 he composed Portraits for solo piano, a three-movement work offering musical portraits of his friends Lee Pattison, Guy Maier, and Edwin Sauter. An orchestral adaptation of the piece, titled Tre Ritratti Characteristici, won the Swift Symphonic Contest in 1935 and received its premiere performance by Frederick Stock and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

His orchestral variations Karma earned first prize in the 1928 International Columbia Graphophone Competition. Haubiel's output also included three operas alongside a substantial body of orchestral and chamber music. In 1935, he founded The Composers' Press to support and promote the works of contemporary American composers. He died on August 26, 1978, at his home in Los Feliz, Los Angeles.