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Cited by the press as “one of the major contenders in American music” and writing “exuberant and rhythmically vital music marked by energy and a wonderful sense of color,” Robert Paterson’s music continues to be in demand by audiences and musicians alike.
A recipient of the 2011 Composer of The Year Award from the Classical Recording Foundation, Paterson is also the winner of the 2010 Cincinnati Camerata Composition Competition with his setting of Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep (text by Mary Frye). The panel chose this work from his cycle Eternal Reflections for its “expressive choral writing, text painting and imaginatively beautiful textures.”
Paterson is the Artistic Director of the American Modern Ensemble that “consistently demonstrates a flair for inventive programming… a worthwhile organization with a strong fan base and performers of high quality” (New York Times). Paterson is also the Music Alive composer-in-residence with the Vermont Youth Orchestra Association, sponsored by Meet The Composer and the League of American Orchestras. This residency will culminate in a major commission for a twenty-minute work for orchestra and chorus.
Upcoming commissions include a new work for the Vermont Symphony Orchestra to be conducted in eight performances by Jaime Laredo in Fall 2011 and two new choral works for the Chamber Choir of Europe in Germany for summer, 2011. Paterson is also working on an orchestral opera in two acts with writer and librettist David Cote, entitled Ice Road Trucker.
Recent performances include the European premiere and sixteen performances of Dancing Games by the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire (France), Eternal Reflections, commissioned for the San Francisco-based Volti choir, Embracing the Wind by the Aureole Trio and New York Harp Trio, and the world premiere of Electric Lines by the Louisville Orchestra. Electric Lines was previously performed during the Minnesota Orchestra Readings and the American Composers Orchestra Whitaker New Music Readings.
Awards include a Copland Award, the Louisville Orchestra Composition Competition, Brian Israel Prize, two ASCAP Young Composer Awards and grants from Meet The Composer, the American Music Center, the American Composers Forum and ASCAP, as well as fellowships to Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Aspen Music Festival and the Atlantic Center for the Arts. Paterson appears on recordings for Mode Records, Centaur Records, Capstone, Riax and AMR, and he will be releasing two more CDs of his music on American Modern Recordings (AMR) in 2011.
Born in 1970, Paterson was raised in Buffalo, New York, the son of a sculptor and a painter. Although his first love was percussion, he soon discovered a passion for composition, writing his first piece at age thirteen. Paterson is active as a professional percussionist and pioneered the development of a six-mallet marimba technique, presenting the world’s first all six-mallet marimba recital at the Eastman School of Music in 1993. Paterson has received degrees from Eastman (BM), Indiana University (MM), and Cornell University (DMA). He resides in New York City with his wife, Victoria, a professional violinist, and their five-year-old son, Dylan.
[April, 2011]
