Robert Carl

Biography

Robert Carl (b.1954) studied composition with Jonathan Kramer, George Rochberg, Ralph Shapey, and Iannis Xenakis. His music is performed throughout the US and Europe, and is published by American Composers' Alliance, Boosey & Hawkes, Roncorp, and Apoll-Edition. His grants, prizes and residencies have come from such sources as the National Endowment for the Arts, Tanglewood, Connecticut Commission on the Arts, Camargo Foundation, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Ucross, Millay Colony, Bogliasco Foundation, Djerassi Foundation, the Aaron Copland House, and the Rockefeller Foundation.

He has been awarded a 2005 Chamber Music America commission for a string quintet written for the Miami String Quartet and Robert Black. An excerpt from his opera-in-progress Harmony (with novelist Russell Banks) was presented in May 2005 in the New York City Opera’s VOX Showcase series. He is also the recipient of the 1998 Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. New World Records released a CD of three large string chamber works in March 2006. In 2007, Carl received a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council for travel to Japan to research contemporary Japanese composers, and he has been commissioned by Oxford University Press to write a book on the premiere of Terry Riley’s In C.

Other CD releases of his work are found on Neuma, Koch International, Lotus, Centaur, Vienna Modern Masters, E.R.M., and The Aerial. For fifteen years he was a co-director of the Extension Works new music ensemble in Boston; he is chair of the composition department at the Hartt School of Music, University of Hartford, and writes extensively on new music for Fanfare Magazine. He studies shakuhachi with Ralph Samuelson.

  • duo inst or voices
  • ACE Publications

    20 title(s)
    Composer Title SCORING/INSTRUMENTATION Year
    Robert Carl AN INTIMATE FIELD Cello, piano
    Robert Carl BLESSING FOR TWO Violin and Vibraphone
    Robert Carl CLEAN SWEEP Shakuhachi, tape
    Robert Carl ColdNightSnow 2 Concert Glockenspiels
    Robert Carl DIE BERLINER HORNISSE
    alto sax in Eb, pf
    Robert Carl EXCAVATING THE PERFECT FAREWELL
    viola, piano
    Robert Carl FAREWELL TO THE FUNLESS 80'S voice, piano
    Robert Carl GARLAND
    1 cello OR 2 cellos OR 1 cello+tape
    Robert Carl Gideon's Lullabye 2 Trumpets in C
    Robert Carl MAGIC ACT
    violin, marimba
    Robert Carl ONE SLIPS, ONE SKIPS 2 vln
    Robert Carl PROCESSIONAL "A TREE RISES" Zheng and Sustaining Instrument
    Robert Carl Refiner's Fire violin and guitar
    Robert Carl RIVER'S BEND 2 fl
    Robert Carl SHADOW BOX cl,pf
    Robert Carl SURGE
    cb, pf
    Robert Carl VIOLIN SONATA (Celestial Fragments) vln,pf
    Robert Carl Violin Sonata No. 2, "Angel-Skating" Violin and Piano
    Robert Carl WATERLIGHT
    pf, vib OR solo vib OR vib, hp OR vib, gtr OR 2vib OR pf, vib, glock
    Robert Carl WRITTEN ON WOOD
    pf, perc

    Additional Works