Robert Carl
Chair of Composition Department, Professor of Composition and Theory
Email: carl@hartford.edu
Biography: Professor of Composition and Theory and Chair of the Composition Department
B.A. from Yale College
M.A. from the University of Pennsylvania
Ph.D. from the University of Chicago
Continued his studies with postgraduate work in Paris with Lurcy Fellowship.
He has studied with Jonathan Kramer, George Rochberg, Ralph Shapey and Iannis Xenakis.
His music has been performed throughout the United States and Europe and has been published by American Composers Alliance, Boosey & Hawkes, Roncorp and Apollo-Edition. Recent CD releases of works are found on New World, Neuma, Koch International, Centaur, Cedille, Capstone, Vienna Modern Masters, E.R.M. and The Aerial.
He was co-director of the Extension Works new music ensemble in Boston for ten years, and writes extensively on new music for Fanfare Magazine . Along with a series of scholarly articles on new music sociology, theory, and aesthetics, he is currently under contract from Oxford University Press to write a book about Terry Riley's In C.
He has won grants and fellowships including the C.D. Jackson Award in Composition (Tanglewood, 1979), National Endowment for the Arts (1981), American Composers Alliance Recording Award (1987), CT Commission on the Arts Individual Artist Fellowship (1996), American Academy of Arts and Letters Charles Ives Fellowship (1998), and the Copland Heritage Foundation 1998 Copland Award.
He has been a resident of the MacDowell Colony (3 times), Yaddo (3 times), Camargo Foundation (Cassis, France-twice), Djerassi Foundation (Woodside, CA), Ucross Foundation (Wyoming), Bogliasco Foundation (Genoa, Italy-twice), Rockefeller International Study Center (Bellagio, Italy), and Millay Colony (twice). He traveled in Spring 2007 for a three-month residency in Tokyo under a fellowship from the Asian Cultural Council.
He has received major commissions from Chamber Music America (Miami String Quartet with bassist Robert Black), Bridgeport Symphony Orchestra (Gustav Meier, conductor), Chicago Pro Musica (Chamber Music Ensemble of the Chicago Symphony), and from the Musical Spring in St. Petersburg, Russia. His work is performed widely throughout the US and Europe. Visit his website here.
Dr. Carl recently completed
Terry Riley's In C, a book for Oxford University Press. In his book, Carl explores how
In C's emerging performance practice has influenced our very ideas of what constitutes art music in the 21st century. Dr. Carl reflects on writing his book in a blog (
http://blog.oup.com/2009/04/terry-rileys-in-c/ ) requested by Oxford University Press.
Carl also speaks about his book, Terry Riley's In C, in a Sony podcast (
http://podcasts.sonybmgmasterworks.com/index.php?s=robert+carl).