Robert Carlisle Black (April 28, 1950 – November 14, 1993) was an American conductor, pianist and composer. He was most particularly associated with the promotion, performance and recording of contemporary classical music, but he also played and conducted the standard repertoire.

Life

Robert Black was born in

Dallas Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...

Texas Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...

in 1950. The pianist William Black (1952–2003) was his brother. He started his piano studies at age 5, presenting his first public recital at 13.MMC Recordings
/ref> He studied at Oberlin College and the

Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...

in New York, where his teachers included

Beveridge Webster Beveridge Webster (May 13, 1908, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania – June 30, 1999, in Hanover, New Hampshire) was an American pianist and educator. Beveridge Webster studied with his father, initially, and in 1921, at age 14, he began five years of ...

Roger Sessions Roger Huntington Sessions (December 28, 1896March 16, 1985) was an American composer, teacher and musicologist. He had initially started his career writing in a neoclassical style, but gradually moved further towards more complex harmonies and ...

and David Diamond. He taught at Oberlin, Stanford University, Long Island University (C. W. Post Campus),

Princeton University Princeton University is a private research university in Princeton, New Jersey. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and one of the ...

and the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

. His early recording of works by Franz Liszt was nominated by the

Franz Liszt Academy of Music The Liszt Ferenc Academy of Music ( hu, Liszt Ferenc Zeneművészeti Egyetem, often abbreviated as ''Zeneakadémia'', "Liszt Academy") is a music university and a concert hall in Budapest, Hungary, founded on November 14, 1875. It is home to the ...

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

for a

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. 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. 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 Kuopio (, ) is a Finland, Finnish city and municipality located in the region of Northern Savonia. It has a population of , which makes it the List of Finnish municipalities, most populous municipality in Finland. Along with Joensuu, Kuopio is on ...

in Kuopio,

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

. Other orchestras he conducted or recorded with included the

Warsaw Philharmonic The Warsaw National Philharmonic Orchestra ( pl, Orkiestra Filharmonii Narodowej w Warszawie) is a Polish orchestra based in Warsaw. Founded in 1901, it is one of Poland's oldest musical institutions. History The orchestra was conceived on ...

, 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 Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. Beethoven remains one of the most admired composers in the history of Western music; his works rank amongst the most performed of the classic ...

's Ninth Symphony at New York's Cathedral of St. John the Divine, a cycle of symphonies by

Mahler Gustav Mahler (; 7 July 1860 – 18 May 1911) was an Austro-Bohemian Romantic composer, and one of the leading conductors of his generation. As a composer he acted as a bridge between the 19th-century Austro-German tradition and the modernism ...

, and conducted Mozart piano concertos from the keyboard. Among the hundreds of works his new music groups premiered were

Ralph Shapey Ralph Shapey (12 March 1921 – 13 June 2002) was an American composer and conductor. Biography Shapey was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is known for his work as a composition professor at the University of Chicago, where he taught ...

's ''Three for Six'',

Joseph Schwantner Joseph Clyde Schwantner (born March 22, 1943, Chicago, Illinois) 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. Schwantne ...

's ''Music of Amber'',

Dane Rudhyar Dane Rudhyar (March 23, 1895 – September 13, 1985), born Daniel Chennevière, was a American author, modernist composer and humanistic astrologer. He was a pioneer of modern transpersonal astrology. Biography Dane Rudhyar was born in Paris on ...

's ''Epic Poem'', and works by

Elliott Carter Elliott Cook Carter Jr. (December 11, 1908 – November 5, 2012) was an American modernist composer. One of the most respected composers of the second half of the 20th century, he combined elements of European modernism and American "ultra- ...

Jacob Druckman Jacob Raphael Druckman (June 26, 1928 – May 24, 1996) was an American composer born in Philadelphia. Life A graduate of the Juilliard School in 1956, Druckman studied with Vincent Persichetti, Peter Mennin, and Bernard Wagenaar. In 1949 and 1 ...

Jean Barraqué Jean-Henri-Alphonse Barraqué (17 January 192817 August 1973) was a French composer and writer on music who developed an individual form of serialism which is displayed in a small output. Life Barraqué was born in Puteaux, Hauts-de-Seine. In 1931 ...

and

Harrison Birtwistle Sir Harrison Birtwistle (15 July 1934 – 18 April 2022) was an English composer of contemporary classical music best known for his operas, often based on mythological subjects. Among his many compositions, his better known works include '' T ...

. He appeared at the Bang on a Can Festival in New York, the

New York Philharmonic The New York Philharmonic, officially the Philharmonic-Symphony Society of New York, Inc., globally known as New York Philharmonic Orchestra (NYPO) or New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra, is a symphony orchestra based in New York City. It is ...

's Horizons Festival, the

Warsaw Autumn Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officiall ...

Festival, the

ISCM The International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) is a music organization that promotes contemporary classical music. The organization was established in Salzburg in 1922 as Internationale Gesellschaft für Neue Musik (IGNM) following the ...

's World Music Days in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates ...

, the New England Conservatory Jazz Festival, the

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Festival, and the LSU Contemporary Music Festival. His recordings include: Elliott Carter's ''In Sleep, in Thunder'', Ralph Shapey's ''Radical Traditionalism'', Schoenberg's ''

Pierrot Lunaire ''Dreimal sieben Gedichte aus Albert Girauds "Pierrot lunaire"'' ("Three times Seven Poems from Albert Giraud's 'Pierrot lunaire), commonly known simply as ''Pierrot lunaire'', Op. 21 ("Moonstruck Pierrot" or "Pierrot in the Moonlight"), is a m ...

'' with Phyllis Bryn-Julson, Stravinsky's '' Dumbarton Oaks Concerto'',Aufbau
/ref>

Tod Machover Tod Machover (born November 24, 1953, in Mount Vernon, New York), is a composer and an innovator in the application of technology in music. He is the son of Wilma Machover, a pianist and Carl Machover, a computer scientist. He was named Direct ...

's ''Nature's Breath'' and ''Towards the Centre'',Opus 1 Classical Music Services
/ref>

Miriam Gideon Miriam Gideon (October 23, 1906 – June 18, 1996) was an American composer. Life Miriam Gideon was born in Greeley, Colorado, on October 23, 1906. She studied organ with her uncle Henry Gideon and piano with Felix Fox. She also studied with Ma ...

's ''Five Sonnets From Shakespeare'' and ''Symphonica brevis''hb direct
/ref> Louise Talma's ''Full Circle'', Charles Wuorinen's ''New York Notes'', William Thomas McKinley's ''Boston Overture'',

Stephen Jaffe Stephen Jaffe (born December 30, 1954, in Washington, D.C.newsobserver.com
...

'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 works were particularly influenced by Charles Wuorinen and

, and include ''Underground Judges'', ''Three Pieces for Violin and Piano'', later reworked as the orchestral work ''Capriccio (Blown Apart)'', and ''Earth Fire'', for viola and piano. His sole piece for solo piano was ''Foramen Habet!'', dedicated to Beveridge Webster. A recording titled "The Art of Robert Black" includes a number of his works. Robert Black died of melanoma in

Palo Alto, California Palo Alto (; Spanish for "tall stick") is a charter city in the northwestern corner of Santa Clara County, California, United States, in the San Francisco Bay Area, named after a coastal redwood tree known as El Palo Alto. The city was es ...

, on November 14, 1993,Some sources say he died on November 16, but the ''New York Times'' obituary, published on Tuesday November 16, says he died on "Sunday". aged 43, survived by his wife, parents and two siblings.

References

Sources

allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

Bridge Records

{{DEFAULTSORT:Black, Robert 1950 births 1993 deaths American classical pianists American male classical pianists American male classical composers American classical composers American male conductors (music) 20th-century classical composers Pupils of Roger Sessions Pupils of David Diamond (composer) Musicians from Dallas Oberlin College alumni Juilliard School alumni Oberlin College faculty Stanford University faculty Long Island University faculty Princeton University faculty University of California, Santa Barbara faculty Deaths from melanoma Deaths from cancer in California 20th-century American conductors (music) 20th-century classical pianists 20th-century American pianists 20th-century American composers Classical musicians from Texas 20th-century American male musicians