Robert Lombardo (composer)

Last updated
Robert Lombardo
Born
Robert Michael Lombardo [1]

(1932-03-05) March 5, 1932 (age 92) [1]
EraContemporary

Robert Michael Lombardo (born 5 March 1932) is an American composer and composition teacher. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Life

Born in Hartford, Connecticut, to Sicilian immigrants, Lombardo received his musical training at the Hartt College of Music, the University of Hartford (BMus., composition cum laude, 1954, MMus., composition, 1955), [5] Hochschule für Musik, Berlin (1958–1959) [5] and the University of Iowa (Ph.D., composition, 1959–1961). [5] His principal composition teacher was Arnold Franchetti. [6] He also studied with Philip Bezanson and Boris Blacher. [1]

Lombardo began teaching music theory at the University of Iowa in 1959, [5] then moved to Hartt College in 1963. [5] In 1964, Lombardo became Professor of theory and composition and Composer-in-Residence at The Music Conservatory of Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University in Chicago, [5] a position he would hold for 35 years until 1999. [5]

Works

Lombardo's compositions include over 200 works for opera, orchestra, chamber music, instrumental solos, choral music, musicals, and electronic music. [7] [8] He has collaborated with his wife, Kathleen, poet and playwright, on several compositions. Lombardo is also one of the few composers writing for the mandolin. Dimitris Marinos [9] performed his Concerto for Mandolin and String Quartet in a world premiere in Chicago in 1995. [10] In addition, Marinos has recorded six of Lombardo's compositions. [6]

Lombardo's works have been performed all over the world. In 1992, contemporary music group CUBE performed his work, in Chicago. [11] Roosevelt University hosted a performance of several of his works on his 80th birthday. [12] [13] And for these, Lombardo has been the recipient of multiple awards. In 1964, he received a Guggenheim Fellowship in Music Composition, [14] and two grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and three Ford Foundation Grants in 1962, 1963 and 1964 among others. [15]

Lombardo's works are not limited to simply compositions; he is also respected for his commissions, which include an important work commissioned by the Serge Koussevitzky Foundation [16] and housed in the Library of Congress. [17] Lombardo's papers, including musical scores and correspondence, are housed at the Northwestern University Library. [18]

Related Research Articles

Shulamit Ran is an Israeli-American composer. She moved from Israel to New York City at 14, as a scholarship student at the Mannes College of Music. Her Symphony (1990) won her the Pulitzer Prize for Music. In this regard, she was the second woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Music, the first being Ellen Taaffe Zwilich in 1983. Ran was a professor of music composition at the University of Chicago from 1973 to 2015. She has performed as a pianist in Israel, Europe and the U.S., and her compositional works have been performed worldwide by a wide array of orchestras and chamber groups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Pinkham</span> American composer

Daniel Rogers Pinkham Jr. was an American composer, organist, and harpsichordist.

Barbara Kolb is an American composer. Her music uses sound masses and often creates vertical structures through simultaneous rhythmic or melodic units. Kolb's musical style can be identified by her use of colorful textures, impressionistic touch, and atonal vocabulary, with influences stemming from literary and visual arts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leslie Bassett</span> American composer (1923–2016)

Leslie Raymond Bassett was an American composer of classical music. Bassett received the 1966 Pulitzer Prize in Music. Bassett had a lifelong relationship with the University of Michigan School of Music. He received the MM there, and in 1956 was the recipient of the university's first DMA. Bassett was a member of the University of Michigan faculty from 1952 until 1992. Upon retirement from active teaching in 1992, he held the title of Albert A. Stanley Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Composition until his death in 2016.

William Hugh Albright was an American composer, pianist and organist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tyondai Braxton</span> American composer and musician

Tyondai Adaien Braxton is an American composer and musician. He has been composing and performing music under his own name and collaboratively under various group titles and collectives since the mid-1990s, including in the experimental rock group Battles from its formation in 2002 until his departure from the group in 2010.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kamran Ince</span> Turkish-American composer (born 1960)

Kamran N. Ince is a Turkish-American composer. He is the winner of many prestigious awards, including a Rome Prize, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Lili Boulanger Memorial Prize, and various others. His work has been performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Piano Quartet, the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, the Milwaukee Opera Theatre, the Arkas Trio, Evelyn Glennie, Lily Afshar, and others, and his recordings can be found on Naxos, EMI, Albany, and Archer Records. He is known today as one of the leading composers of contemporary music.

Robert M. Greenberg is an American composer, pianist, and musicologist who was born in Brooklyn, New York. He has composed more than 50 works for a variety of instruments and voices, and has recorded a number of lecture series on music history and music appreciation for The Great Courses.

C. P. First is an American composer of the avant-garde. He was born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Recognized primarily for his chamber music, he has also composed opera, orchestral and electronic music. His music is characterized by its taut, often disturbing drama, and carefully calculated, discordant atonal language.

Olly Woodrow Wilson, Jr. was an American composer of contemporary classical music, pianist, double bassist, and a musicologist. He was one of the most preeminent composers of African American descent in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. He is known for developing a list of Heterogenous Sound Ideals that is widely used to dissect different aspects of music, with an emphasis on African culture. According to Wilson himself, "The essence of Africanness consists of a way of doing something, not simply something that is done" (1991). This motto is the basis of Wilson's work in the realm of ethnomusicology. He is also known for establishing the TIMARA program at Oberlin Conservatory, the first-ever conservatory program in electronic music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Schwendinger</span> Mexican composer

Laura Elise Schwendinger was the first composer to win the American Academy in Berlin's Berlin Prize.

Robert Theodore Anderson was an American organist, composer and pedagogue.

Arnold Franchetti (1911–1993) was a composer born in Lucca, Italy who later emigrated to the United States.

Jason Eckardt is an American composer. He began his musical life playing guitar in heavy metal and jazz bands and abruptly moved to composing after discovering the music of Anton Webern.

Donald Harris was an American composer who taught music at Ohio State University for 22 years. He was Dean of the College of the Arts from 1988 to 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcos Balter</span> Brazilian contemporary classical composer

Marcos Balter is a Brazilian contemporary classical music composer and the Fritz Reiner Professor of Musical Composition at Columbia University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Froom</span> American composer and college professor

David Froom was an American composer and college professor. Froom taught at the University of Utah, the Peabody Institute, and the University of Maryland, College Park, and he was on the faculty at St. Mary's College of Maryland from 1989 until his death in 2022. He has received awards and honors from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters,, the Fromm Foundation at Harvard, the Koussevitzky Foundation of the Library of Congress, the Barlow Foundation, and was a five-time recipient of an Individual Artist Award from the State of Maryland.

Concerto Fantastique is an orchestral composition in four movements by the American composer Ralph Shapey. The work was commissioned by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, who first performed the work under the composer on November 21, 1991. It was a finalist for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize for Music.

Christopher Trapani is an American/Italian composer of contemporary classical music. In 2007 he won the Gaudeamus Award of the Dutch Gaudeamus Foundation. A CD of his music, Waterlines, was released in 2018. A second release of Waterlines by the Ictus Ensemble was named one of the top 5 classical releases of 2020 by De Standaard. In 2021–2022 he was a visiting assistant professor at the Thornton School of Music of the University of Southern California.

Yu-Hui Chang, born in Taichung, Taiwan, is a Taiwanese composer based in the United States. She received awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2009, and the Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2017. She is the Victor and Gwendolyn Beinfield Professor of Music at Brandeis University.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Robert Lombardo" at the Northwestern University Library
  2. ↑ Anderson, E Ruth (1976). Contemporary American Composers. A biographical dictionary. Boston: G K Hall & Co. ISBN   0816111170.
  3. ↑ Ewen, David (1982). American Composers: A biographical dictionary. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. ISBN   0399126260.
  4. ↑ Rehrig, William H (1991). The Heritage Encyclopedia of Band Music. Composers and their music (Two volumes). Westerville, OH: Integrity Press. ISBN   0918048087.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Official website - comprehensive biography
  6. 1 2 Official website - brief bio
  7. ↑ Vinton, John (1974). Dictionary of Contemporary Music. New York: Dutton. ISBN   0525091254.
  8. ↑ Composium Directory of New Music. Annual Index of Contemporary Compositions. Sedro Woolley, WA: Crystal Musicworks. 1982–1983 [1981]. ISSN   0275-2301.{{cite journal}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  9. ↑ "Crosssound Musicians 1999-2006". CrossSound.
  10. ↑ Delacoma, Wynne (January 20, 1995). "Opens Opens Northwestern U Career with Piano Concert". Chicago Sun-Times . Archived from the original on April 15, 2016.
  11. ↑ Delacoma, Wynne (January 23, 1992). "Concert Honors 3 Local Composers". Chicago Sun-Times . Archived from the original on April 14, 2016.
  12. ↑ John von Rhein Recommends, Chicago Tribune, November 9, 2012
  13. ↑ Shen, Ted (November 23, 2002). "Gentle reading of Lombardo". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  14. ↑ "Robert Lombardo". Guggenheim Foundation. Archived from the original on 4 July 2013. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  15. ↑ "ASCAP adds to $$ grants". Billboard. June 8, 1968. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
  16. ↑ Koussevitzky Foundation Archives, 1965
  17. ↑ "Koussevitzky Foundations Announces Commission Winners". Library of Congress. January 6, 2012.
  18. ↑ "Guide to the Robert Lombardo papers". University of Northwestern. Retrieved 6 April 2013.
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.