The Penn State School of Music hosts bassist Robert Black, a faculty member at the Hartt School of Music in Hartford, Conn., who will present a guest recital of contemporary music written for the double bass on 8 p.m. Friday, March 7, in Esber Recital Hall on the University Park campus of Penn State. The performance includes Kate Moore's "The Hermit Thrush and the Astronaut," commissioned by Black in 2012 with a grant from the Hartt Faculty Development Fund. Admission is free.
Robert Black also will present a masterclass for Penn State double bass students at 10 a.m. March 7, in Esber Recital Hall on the University Park campus of Penn State. The masterclass is open to the public.
Robert Black tours the world creating unheard-of music for the solo double bass. He collaborates with the most adventurous composers, musicians, dancers, artists, actors, and technophiles from all walks of life. He has commissioned, collaborated, or performed with robert blackmusicians from John Cage to D.J. Spooky, Elliott Carter to Meredith Monk, Cecil Taylor to young emerging composers, as well as the Brazilian painter Ige D'Aquino, Japanese choreographer Yoshiko Chuma, the American actor Kathryn Walker, the English sound artist/DJ, Mira Calix and Swiss-American film maker, Rudy Burckhardt.
Robert Black is a founding member of the “Bang On A Can All-Stars.” Additional chamber music activities include performances with the Ciompi and Miami String Quartets. He annually appears at the Monadnock Music Festival and the Moab Music Festival. Robert maintains a full teaching schedule at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford, the Festival Eleazar de Carvalho (Brazil), and the Manhattan School of Music’s Contemporary Performance Program. A recipient of numerous grants, he received a Bessie Award for his collaborative work with The School of Hard Knocks in New York City.
His most recent solo recording is titled Modern American Bass and features mid-20th century American bass repertoire. His other solo recordings include State of the Bass, The Complete Bass Music of Christian Wolff, and The Complete Bass Music of Giacinto. Robert has also recorded for Sony Classical, Point/Polygram, Cantaloupe, Koch International, CRI, Opus One, Artifact Recordings, Folkways Records, and others.
Robert is on the advisory board of the international radio series Art of the States, is editor of the "New Scores" column for the journal Bass World, is the director the International Society of Bassists’ biennial International Composition Competition, and adjudicates for t he Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York City.