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Robert Liberman
Robert Liberman was born in Charleston, South Carolina, where he attended the Charleston County School System from first through twelfth grade.
Robert became interested in music at an early age; often sitting at the piano for hours, picking out the notes to favorite songs. Eventually, his mother had enough of the noise and found him a piano teacher. Although he took lessons for several years, he was more interested in playing rock and roll than practicing scales and arpeggios. In 1969, at the age of thirteen, he finally convinced his father to purchase him a Farfisa portable organ and, as they say, the rest is history.
At that time, Robert's older brother, Jack, was a drummer and in high school he formed a band with some friends. To help them get started, they solicited the help of Joe Atchison, one of the members of Charleston's premier bands at the time - The Viscounts. When Joe came to Jack's house to help the band, he noticed a portable organ as he passed by Robert's bedroom. "Whose organ is that?"" Joe asked Jack. "That's my brothers" Jack replied, "but he's not in the band". "He is now!" said Joe.
Although none of the musicians were very experienced, they practiced after school every afternoon. What they lacked in experience, they supplemented with dedication and hard work. In a short time, they became very good, and within a couple of years became one of the most popular bands in South Carolina - The Max Damian Band. Robert's Farfisa organ soon grew into a huge keyboard arsenal consisting of a Hammond B-3 organ, RMI electric piano, amplified Chickering console piano, Minimoog synthesizer, ARP-2600 synthesizer and a wall of speakers.
When Max Damian broke up in 1975, Robert decided to pursue a career in music so he headed for Boston to study at the prestigious Berklee College of Music. His goal was to become a studio musician, and he became very proficient using synthesizers. Boston was fertile ground for musical creativity, and Robert thrived in that environment. However, a life-changing would occur that would throw a wrench into the works.
Robert met his wife-to-be in Charleston during spring break from Berklee. Although it was not love at first sight, Robert and Angie became good friends and stayed in touch after Robert returned to school. That summer, however, was a different story and they soon fell in love.
They became engaged during Robert's junior year at Berklee, and were married in 1978. Because Robert was not finished with school, they returned to Boston where they stayed until he graduated in 1979.
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