Background
Robert Black was born in Dallas, Texas in 1950.
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Robert Black
Edit ProfileEducation
He studied at Oberlin College and the Juilliard School in New York, where his teachers included Beveridge Webster, Roger Sessions and David Diamond.
Career
Not to be confused with the saxophonist or the double-bass player named Robert Black. He was most particularly associated with the promotion, performance and recording of contemporary classical music, but he also played and conducted the standard repertoire. He started his piano studies at age 5, presenting his first public recital at 13.
He taught at Oberlin, Stanford University, Long Island University (C West Post Campus), Princeton University and the University of California, Santa Barbara.
He was music director of the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra from 1987 to 1993. In 1992 he was appointed Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Kuopio Symphony Orchestra in Kuopio, Finland.
Other orchestras he conducted or recorded with included the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Silesian Philharmonic. As a conductor, he was as much involved with the standard orchestral repertory as with new music
He conducted performance of Beethoven"s Ninth Symphony at New York"s Cathedral of Saint John the Divine, a cycle of symphonies by Mahler, and conducted Mozart piano concertos from the keyboard.
Among the hundreds of works his new music groups premiered were Ralph Shapey"s Three for Six, Joseph Schwantner"s Music of Amber, Dane Rudhyar"s Epic Poem, and works by Elliott Carter, Jacob Druckman, Jean Barraqué and Harrison Birtwistle. He appeared at the Bang on a Can Festival in New York, the New York Philharmonic"s Horizons Festival, the Warsaw Autumn Festival, the ISCM"s World Music Days in Athens, the New England Conservatory Jazz Festival, the Grand Teton Festival, and the Louisiana State University Contemporary Music Festival. His recordings include: Elliott Carter"s In Sleep, in Thunder, Ralph Shapey"s Radical Traditionalism, Schoenberg"s Pierrot Lunaire with Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Stravinsky"s Dumbarton Oaks Concerto, Tod Machover"s Nature"s Breath and Towards the Centre, Miriam Gideon"s Five Sonnets From Shakespeare and Symphonica brevis Louise Talma"s Full Circle, Charles Wuorinen"s New York Notes, William Thomas McKinley"s Boston Overture, Stephen Jaffe"s The Rhythm of the Running Plough, Stephen Dembski"s Spectra, Joseph Koykkar"s Composite, Maxine Warshauer"s Revelation, Mitch Hampton"s Three Minute Waltz, Paul Renz"s Symphonic Poem, David Macbride"s Nocturnos de la ventana and works by Beethoven, Roger Sessions and John Cage.
Robert Black came to serious composition very late in his life.
His sole piece for solo piano was Foramen Habet!, dedicated to Beveridge Webster.
Achievements
Membership
He founded the New York New Music Ensemble in 1975, was a member of Speculum Musicae from 1978, and founded the Prism Chamber Orchestra in 1983.
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Born
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Died
November 14, 1993 (aged 43) -
Nationality
United States