Robert Evett

Biography

"In the event that my life-work is consulted or remembered after my death, the single point I want emphasized is that everything touching real style in my work -- the shapes of the harmonics themselves, the harmonic rhythm, the oddities of melodic structure, the patterns of statement and return -- is mine and mine alone, and the result of undeviating fidelity to what I consider to be my vocation." -Robert Evett

Robert Evett was born in a small town named Loveland in the Rocky Mountain country of central Colorado in 1922. In nearby Estes Park his father kept a livery stable. His mother played the piano, and it was she who introduced this youngest of her three sons to the art that was to be the center of his life. A frail, precocious child, he was composing music by the time he was attempting to play Bach.

He was in his early teens when he met Artur Schnabel, who was in Colorado on vacation. Evett showed the celebrated pianist a piano sonata he had written and was encouraged to believe he was right in thinking it was his vocation to be a composer.

Shortly after, his brother Kenneth, nine years older than he, and always his most important mentor, brought him to Colorado Springs to live so he could study composition with Roy Harris. Evett went to Cornell as a Telluride Fellow when Roy Harris was composer-in-residence there, and studied under Harris further at Colorado College.

In 1947 he arrived in Washington where he had an interval as Chairman of the Music Department of the Institute of Contemporary Arts and at the D.C. Public Library. In the Fall of 1951 he departed for New York to finish his formal education at Juilliard where he studied with Persichetti. The following year an offer of a position with The New Republic returned him to Washington.

Evett passed away in 1975.

ACE Publications

41 title(s)
Composer Title SCORING/INSTRUMENTATION Year
Robert Evett ANNIVERSARY CONCERTO:75 orch(2-alfl-2- eh-2-bcl(cl3)-2-cbsn(bsn3),4-3-3-1,timp,3perc, hp,cel,str
Robert Evett BILLY IN THE DARBIES Baritone, clarinet, string quartet, and piano
Robert Evett CAPRICCIOS pf
Robert Evett CELLO CONCERTO NO. 2 vcl solo,orch:2-2-2-2, 4-3-0-0,perc,timp,str
Robert Evett CHACONNE pf
Robert Evett CHORALE PRELUDES (3) any keyboard instrument
Robert Evett COMPLINE Bass solo, SATB, optional continuo
Robert Evett CONCERTINO FOR ORCHESTRA 2/picc-2-ehn-2-bcl-2-cbsn, 4-3-3-1,timp,perc,str
Robert Evett CONCERTO FOR CELLO & ORCH cello&orch:1-1-1-1,hn,str
Robert Evett CONCERTO FOR PIANO & ORCH pf(solo),timp,str
Robert Evett CONCERTO FOR SMALL ORCH chamber orch:2-2-2-2, 1-1-1-0,timp,str
Robert Evett DUO FOR VIOLIN AND CELLO violin, cello
Robert Evett FANTASIA ON A THEME BY HANDEL vln,vcl,pf
Robert Evett FIVE BOONS OF LIFE, THE sop,bar,bass,hpschd
Robert Evett LAST SUPPER, THE ttbb with soli,vln,ob,hpschd,narr
Robert Evett LAUDS IN HONOR OF ST IGNATIUS OF LOYOLA men's voices,orch(pic,fl-2-2-2,4-3-3-1,timp,perc,str
Robert Evett LITTLE ONES, THE vln,vcl,5timp,perc
Robert Evett MARY DYER vln,vcl,pf
Robert Evett MASS unison chorus, descant, org
Robert Evett MONADNOCK SATB & orch
Robert Evett PRIME The Little Hours Chorus a capella
Robert Evett PSALM 90 (from Compline) Bass solo, SATB
Robert Evett QUARTET FOR PIANO & STRINGS vln,vla,vcl,pf
Robert Evett QUINTET FOR PIANO & STRING QUARTET
Robert Evett RICERCARE for 2 Pianos

Additional Works