Robert Maxwell, born Max Rosen on April 19, 1921 in New York City, United States, was an American harpist and songwriter who began playing the harp at age ten. He won a scholarship to the Juilliard School of Music and became the youngest member of the National Symphony Orchestra at age 17. He performed under prominent conductors including Arturo Toscanini and Serge Koussevitsky, and served in the United States Coast Guard Band under Rudy Vallee. His compositions include the popular singles “Ebb Tide” (1953), “Shangri-La” (1957), which reached number 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1964, “Little Dipper” (1959), recorded under the pseudonym the Mickey Mozart Quintet, and “Solfeggio” (1953), which was later reissued in 1957 as “Song of the Nairobi Trio”. He also wrote “Lost Patrol”, which served as the theme music for the Australian television program Four Corners. He appeared on radio, television, and film, including a summer stint replacing Frank Sinatra on CBS. In the early 1970s, he changed his professional name to Bobby Maxwell to avoid confusion with a British publisher. He died on February 7, 2012.
