Robert Een (born 1952) is an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

cellist The cello ( ; plural ''celli'' or ''cellos'') or violoncello ( ; ) is a bowed (sometimes plucked and occasionally hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually tuned in perfect fifths: from low to high, C2, G2, D3 ...

, and

vocalist Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

Career

Known for his use of extended vocal and cello techniques, Een has recorded eight albums of his compositions and scored several films. He received

Bessie Awards The New York Dance and Performance Awards, also known as the Bessie Awards, are awarded annually for exceptional achievement by independent dance artists presenting their work in New York City. The broad categories of the awards are: choreography, ...

for music composition in 1998 and for sustained achievement in 2000. He won an

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the A ...

in 2004 for his score to

Dan Hurlin Dan Hurlin (born 1955) is an American puppeteer and performance artist. Life and work Performance works include: ''No(thing so powerful as) Truth'' (1995); ''Constance and Ferdinand'' (1991) with Victoria Marks; ''Quintland (The Musical)'' (1992 ...

's puppet theatre work ''Hiroshima Maiden''. His music for

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

and

theater Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actor, actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The p ...

can be heard in the repertories of

Liz Lerman Liz Lerman (born 1947 in Los Angeles, CA) is an American choreographer and founder of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange . Called by the Washington Post “the source of an epochal revolution in the scope and purposes of dance art,” she and her dancers ...

David Dorfman David Dorfman (born February 7, 1993) is an American attorney and former actor. He portrayed Aidan Keller in the 2002 horror film remake '' The Ring'', and its 2005 sequel ''The Ring Two''. His other film roles include Sammy in ''Panic'', Joey ...

, Jennifer Muller,

Brian Selznick Brian Selznick (born July 14, 1966) is an American illustrator and author best known as the writer of ''The Invention of Hugo Cabret'' (2007), '' Wonderstruck'' (2011), ''The Marvels'' (2015) and ''Kaleidoscope'' (2021). He won the 2008 Caldecot ...

, and

Yin Mei Yin Mei (born in China) is a choreographer and dancer, and the founder of a dance company based in New York City.UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

's Department of World Arts and Cultures/Dance.

Performance

Een's band, Big Joe, includes the film composer

Carter Burwell Carter Benedict Burwell (born November 18, 1954) is an American film composer. He has consistently collaborated with the Coen brothers, having scored most of their films. Burwell has also scored three of Todd Haynes's films, three of Spike Jonz ...

, and his long association with

Meredith Monk Meredith Jane Monk (born November 20, 1942) is an American composer, performer, director, vocalist, filmmaker, and choreographer. From the 1960s onwards, Monk has created multi-disciplinary works which combine music, theatre, and dance, recording ...

, including his performance in the 1991 premier of Monk's ''

Atlas An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth. Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...

'',Pendle, Karin; ed. (1997).
American Women Composers
', p.62. Psychology Press. . culminated in the creation of their hour-long music/theater duet, ''

Facing North ''Facing North'' is the eighth album by Meredith Monk, released in 1992 through ECM New Series. Track listing Personnel ;Musicians *Robert Een – pitch pipe, vocals * Meredith Monk – vocals, piano, organ, pitch pipe ;Produ ...

'' (1992). He also performed with

Julius Eastman Julius Eastman (October 27, 1940 – May 28, 1990) was an American composer, pianist, vocalist, and performance artist whose work is associated with musical minimalism. He was among the first composers to combine minimalist processes with elements ...

in Monk's ensemble and studied composition with him. He has performed his music throughout the world, including

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

caves in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, a theater above the arctic circle in

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

, a Shinto shrine in

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, as well as Lincoln Center and the

Knitting Factory The Knitting Factory is a nightclub in New York City that features eclectic music and entertainment. After opening in 1987, various other locations were opened in the United States. The Knitting Factory gave its audience poetry readings, perform ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

. He performed his opera ''The Escape Artist'' at the 2008 World Festival of Sacred Music in Los Angeles with the International Mystical All-Star Band.

Discography

*''Music from Blue Earth'' (1989) w/ Dale Newton *''Big Joe'' (1995) *''Your Life Is Not Your Own'' (Buzzbox, 1998)Lieberman, Julie Lyonn (2004).
Alternative Strings: The New Curriculum
', p.109. Hal Leonard. . *''The Saga'' (2000) *''Robert Een: Mystery Dances'' (

Starkland Starkland is an independent record label based in Boulder, Colorado that specializes in alternative classical music. It was founded in 1991 by Thomas Steenland. Starkland's first two CDs offered all the principal 1960s music from the "organized s ...

, 2003) *''Fertile Fields'' (Buzzbox, 2003) *''Expanding Universe'' (Buzzbox, 2004) *''Hiroshima Maiden'' ( Innova, 2008) *''The Mystery of You'' (2012) *''Subtle Electric Fire'' (2013) With

*''

Dolmen Music ''Dolmen Music'' is a 1981 studio album by American composer and vocalist Meredith Monk. Recorded in March 1980 and January 1981, it was released on the ECM New Series label. The recording is Monk's first of 12 recordings with the ECM record label ...

'' (ECM New Series, 1981) *''

Turtle Dreams ''Turtle Dreams'' is an album by American composer and vocalist Meredith Monk recorded in 1983 and released on the ECM New Series label.Do You Be'' (ECM New Series, 1987) *'' Book of Days'' (ECM New Series, 1990) *''

'' (ECM New Series, 1992) *'' Atlas: An Opera in Three Parts'' (ECM New Series, 1993)

Soundtracks

*''The Rook'' (1994) *''Misty Isle Out'' (1997) *'' Mr. Jealousy'' (1997) *'' Trouble on the Corner'' (1997) *''Case Studies from the Groat Center for Sleep Disorders'' (2002)

Sources

External links

*
''Mystery Dances'' CD
on

1952 births Living people American male composers 21st-century American composers American cellists University of California, Los Angeles faculty 21st-century American male musicians 21st-century cellists {{US-composer-20thC-stub