Robert Kyr

Last updated
Robert Kyr
DrKyr.jpg
Dr Robert Kyr
Background information
BornApril 20, 1952
Cleveland
Occupation(s) Composer, writer, filmmaker, and professor of music composition and theory.

Robert Harry Kyr (born April 20, 1952 in Cleveland) [1] is an American composer, writer, filmmaker, and Philip H. Knight Professor of Music Composition and Theory. [2]

Kyr is one of the most prolific composers of his generation, having written 12 symphonies, three chamber symphonies, three violin concerti, numerous large works for orchestra, oratorios and other large-scale choral works, and a wide variety of chamber music. [3] [4]

Luminous and sometimes ecstatic in effect, Kyr's work is basically tonal, and often harmonically and rhythmically complex, its sophistication deriving from its synthesis of both modern and ancient modes, [5] [6] as well as Western and Asian musical traditions. [7] An engaged activist for world peace [8] and environmentalism, [6] Kyr has initiated a number of projects that bring together musicians from diverse cultures, [9] or combine music with other media, [10] and touch upon current or historical events. [11] [12]

The concepts and titles of Robert Kyr's works often point to their spiritual and metaphysical dimensions: A Time For Life, [6] In Praise of Music, [13] [14] On The Nature of Love (Violin Concerto No.1), [15] Unseen Rain, [16] Songs of The Shining Wind, [5] Into the Hour of New Life, [17] White Tigers, [18] and The Passion According to Four Evangelists. [19] [20]

Kyr's music has been performed widely around the world and he has been commissioned by numerous ensembles, including Chanticleer (San Francisco), Cappella Romana (Portland), Cantus (Minneapolis), San Francisco Symphony Chorus, New England Philharmonic, Oregon Symphony, Yale Symphony Orchestra, Cleveland Chamber Symphony, New West Symphony (Los Angeles), Harvard-Radcliffe Collegium Musicum, Harvard Glee Club, Radcliffe Choral Society, Yale Camerata, Oregon Repertory Singers, Cappella Nova (Scotland), Revalia (Estonia), Putni (Latvia), Moscow State Chamber Choir (Russia), Ensemble Project Ars Nova, Back Bay Chorale (Boston), Notre Dame Vocale, and San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra among others. [3] [21]

Three compact discs of Kyr's music are currently available through New Albion Records: Violin Concerto Trilogy; [22] Unseen Rain; [16] and The Passion According to Four Evangelists. [19] In addition, his music has been featured on several compilation discs including, Faces of a Woman, [23] [24] Celestial Light: Music by Hildegard von Bingen and Robert Kyr, [24] The Fourth River: The Millennium Revealed, [24] and Strange Attractors: New American Music for Piano. [25]

Kyr has held teaching positions at Yale University, UCLA, the Longy School of Music and since 1990, has been Professor of Composition and Theory at the University of Oregon, [2] which also includes David Crumb on the faculty. Kyr also directs the Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium, [3] the University of Oregon Composers Forum, the Music Today Festival, and the Vanguard Concert and Workshop Series, as well as the Pacific Rim Gamelan. [2] [26]

Kyr received his bachelor's degree from Yale University in 1974, followed by a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1980, and a Ph.D from Harvard University in 1989, where previously, he was a Junior Fellow in the Society of Fellows. [27] He also studied at the Royal College of Music in London, England (1974–76). [28] His primary teachers included Donald Martino, Earl Kim, George Rochberg [29] and George Crumb. [30]

Related Research Articles

Isaac Stern American musician

Isaac Stern was an American violinist.

Trevor Pinnock English harpsichordist and conductor

Trevor David Pinnock is a British harpsichordist and conductor.

Academy of Ancient Music band

The Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) is a British period-instrument orchestra based in Cambridge, England. Founded by harpsichordist Christopher Hogwood in 1973, it was named after a previous organisation of the same name of the 18th century. The musicians play on either original instruments or modern copies of instruments from the period of time the music was composed. They generally play Baroque and Classical music, though they have also played some new compositions for baroque orchestra in recent years.

George Rochberg was an American composer of contemporary classical music. Long a serial composer, Rochberg abandoned the practice following the death of his teenage son in 1964; he claimed this compositional technique had proved inadequate to express his grief and had found it empty of expressive intent. By the 1970s, Rochberg's use of tonal passages in his music had invoked controversy among critics and fellow composers. A teacher at the University of Pennsylvania until 1983, Rochberg also served as chairman of its music department until 1968 and was named the first Annenberg Professor of the Humanities in 1978. For notable students See: List of music students by teacher: R to S#George Rochberg.

John Harris Harbison is an American composer, known for his symphonies, operas, and large choral works.

Hilary Hahn American violinist

Hilary Hahn is an American violinist. She has performed throughout the world both as a soloist with leading orchestras and conductors and as a recitalist. She has also built a reputation as a champion of contemporary music. Several composers have written works for her, including concerti by Edgar Meyer and Jennifer Higdon, partitas by Antón García Abril, and a violin and piano sonata by Lera Auerbach.

Samuel Hans Adler is an American composer, conductor, author, and professor. During the course of a professional career which ranges over six decades he has served as a faculty member at both the University of Rochester's Eastman School of Music and the Juilliard School. In addition, he is credited with founding and conducting the U.S. Seventh Army's Seventh Army Symphony Orchestra which participated in the cultural diplomacy initiatives of the United States in Germany and throughout Europe in the aftermath of World War II. Adler's musical catalogue includes over 400 published compositions. He has been honored with several awards including Germany's Order of Merit – Officer's Cross.

Quincy Porter American composer

William Quincy Porter was an American composer and teacher of classical music.

Joseph Clyde Schwantner is a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer, educator and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 2002. He was awarded the 1970 Charles Ives Prize.

Masaaki Suzuki is a Japanese organist, harpsichordist and conductor, and the founder and musical director of the Bach Collegium Japan. With this ensemble he is recording the complete choral works of Johann Sebastian Bach for the Swedish label BIS Records, for which he is also recording Bach's concertos, orchestral suites, and solo works for harpsichord and organ. He is also an artist-in-residence at Yale University and the principal guest conductor of its Schola Cantorum, and has conducted orchestras and choruses around the world.

Yehudi Wyner is an American composer, pianist, conductor and music educator.

Oregon Bach Festival (OBF) is an annual celebration of the works of Johann Sebastian Bach and his musical legacy, held in Eugene, Oregon, United States, in late June and early July. The Executive Director is Janelle McCoy. The role of artistic director was previously held by German organist and conductor Helmuth Rilling.

Arthur Weisberg was an American clarinetist, bassoonist, conductor, composer and author.

Stephen Paulus American composer

Stephen Paulus was a Grammy winning American composer, best known for his operas and choral music. His best-known piece is his 1982 opera The Postman Always Rings Twice, one of several operas he composed for the Opera Theatre of St. Louis, which prompted The New York Times to call him "a young man on the road to big things". His style is essentially tonal, and melodic and romantic by nature. He received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and Guggenheim Foundation and won the prestigious Kennedy Center Friedheim Prize. He was commissioned by such notable organizations as the Minnesota Opera, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, the Saint Louis Chamber Chorus, the American Composers Orchestra, the Dale Warland Singers, the Harvard Glee Club and the New York Choral Society. Paulus was a passionate advocate for the works and careers of his colleagues. He co-founded the American Composers Forum in 1973, the largest composer service organization in the U.S., and served as the Symphony and Concert Representative on the ASCAP Board of Directors from 1990 until his death in 2014.

Jacques Singer was an American virtuoso violinist, symphony orchestra conductor, and music educator who flourished from about 1925 until a few months before his death in 1980.

Stephen Jaffe American composer

Stephen Jaffe is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He lives in Durham, North Carolina, United States, and serves on the music faculty of Duke University, where he holds the post of Mary and James H. Semans Professor of Music Composition; his colleagues there include composers Scott Lindroth and Anthony Kelley. Jaffe graduated summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania in 1977; he received a master's degree the following year from the same institution. During his time in Pennsylvania, he studied with George Crumb, George Rochberg, and Richard Wernick.

Jeffrey Alan Kahane is an American classical concert pianist and conductor. He was music director of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra following a 20-year run, the longest of any music director in the orchestra's history. He is currently the Music Director of the Sarasota Music Festival, a program of Sarasota Orchestra and is Professor of Keyboard Studies (Piano) at the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles, California

Martin Pearlman American conductor

Martin Pearlman is an American conductor, harpsichordist, composer, and early music specialist. He founded the first permanent Baroque orchestra in North America with Boston Baroque in 1973–74. Many of its original players went on to play in or direct other ensembles in what became a growing field in the American music scene. He later founded the chorus of that ensemble and has been the music director of Boston Baroque from its inception up to the present day.

La Petite Bande is a Belgium-based ensemble specialising in Baroque music played on period instruments. They are particularly known for their recordings of works by Corelli, Rameau, Handel, and Bach.

<i>Orchestral Works by Tomas Svoboda</i> 2003 studio album by Oregon Symphony

Orchestral Works by Tomas Svoboda is a classical music album by the Oregon Symphony under the artistic direction of James DePreist, released by the record label Albany in 2003. The album was recorded at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall in Portland, Oregon during three performances in January and June 2000. It contains three works by Tomáš Svoboda, a Czech-American composer who taught at Portland State University for more than 25 years: Overture of the Season, Op. 89; Concerto for Marimba and Orchestra, Op. 148; and Symphony No. 1, Op. 20. The album's executive producers were Peter Kermani, Susan Bush, and Mark B. Rulison; Blanton Alspaugh served as the recording producer.

References

  1. ↑ Randel, Don Michael (1996). The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music . Belknap Press. pp.  474.
  2. 1 2 3 "Robert Kyr, University of Oregon Faculty Biography". Archived from the original on September 8, 2008. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  3. 1 2 3 "Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium, 2009 Guest Artists". Archived from the original on 2010-07-24. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  4. ↑ Campbell, Brett (July 17, 2006). "Portland: A Kyr for Insomnia". NewMusicBox . Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  5. 1 2 Oestreich, James R. (October 26, 1991). "Classical Music in Review". The New York Times . Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  6. 1 2 3 Kellerman, Michael (October 16, 2009). "Review - A Time For Life". The Austin Chronicle . Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  7. ↑ Hawley, David (October 8, 2008). "'Ashes Into Light': a meditation on the Nagasaki bombing". MinnPost.com . Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  8. ↑ Campbell, Brett (Spring 2006). "Peace and Music: a composer commemorates Nagasaki" (PDF). Oregon Humanities . Retrieved December 10, 2009.[ permanent dead link ]
  9. ↑ "Bridges - Ashes Into Light". Minnesota Chorale website. Archived from the original on 2011-07-27. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  10. ↑ Johnson, Brett (April 12, 2007). "A master of music and a master photographer make unique art together". Ventura County Star . Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  11. ↑ van Ryzin, Jeanne Claire (October 8, 2009). "Conspirare sings a green song". Austin American-Statesman . Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  12. ↑ Buske, Jennifer (January 15, 2009). "A Lament, And Lesson, Made Real By Song". The Washington Post . Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  13. ↑ Dudley, Anna Carol (September 17, 2006). "A Chorus for Any Composer". San Francisco Classical Voice. Archived from the original on November 20, 2008. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  14. ↑ Malone, Andrew Lindemann (November 1, 2006). "Chanticleer, Playing Tag With the Text". The Washington Post. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  15. ↑ "Art of the States: Violin Concerto No. 1". Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  16. 1 2 "New Albion Records-Ensemble Pan-Unseen Rain". Archived from the original on October 9, 2009. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  17. ↑ Walton, Kenneth (December 17, 2001). "A time to remember". The Scotsman . Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  18. ↑ "Art of the States: White Tigers". Archived from the original on June 4, 2011. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  19. 1 2 "New Albion Records-The Passion According To Four Evangelists". Archived from the original on October 9, 2009. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  20. ↑ Dyer, Richard (April 9, 1995). "The inner world of Robert Kyr's Passion". The Boston Globe . Archived from the original on November 2, 2012. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  21. ↑ "Oregon Symphony 2009/10 Season Guest Speaker Bio, Robert Kyr". Archived from the original on January 16, 2016. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  22. ↑ "New Albion Records-Violin Concerto Trilogy". Archived from the original on October 9, 2009. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  23. ↑ "MDG Recording-Faces of a Woman" . Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  24. 1 2 3 "Tapestry vocal ensemble, List of recordings with listening samples". Archived from the original on August 4, 2007. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  25. ↑ "Albany Records-Strange Attractions" . Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  26. ↑ "Pacific Rim Gamelan". Archived from the original on December 15, 2012. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  27. ↑ "Current and Former Harvard Junior Fellows by Field" . Retrieved December 10, 2009.
  28. ↑ International Who's Who in Classical Music 2003. London: Europa Publications. 2003. p. 439.
  29. ↑ Dixon, Joan DeVee (1992). George Rochberg: a bio-bibliographic guide to his life and works . Pendragon Press. p.  36.
  30. ↑ Holtz, Jackson (July 1, 2004). "Inspirational composer to be featured at Symposium". Oregon Bach Festival . Paragraph 14. Archived from the original on November 28, 2010. Retrieved December 10, 2009.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.