Robert Rollin, Official Web Site of the Composer

Biography

ROBERT ROLLIN, a native of Brooklyn, New York, began composing at age 8 and was soon recommended by conductor Erich Leinsdorf for a special composition scholarship at Juilliard. Graduating Phi Beta Kappa from City College and with a doctorate from Cornell, he studied under Mark Brunswick, Ravi Shankar, Robert Palmer, Karel Husa, Elliott Carter, and György Ligeti. He has been recognized with annual ASCAP honors consecutively for two decades, and has held many important awards, post doctoral fellowships, and grants, including the Ohio Governor's Award for Creative Excellence presented by the Honorable Richard Celeste in a public ceremony.

With music performed and broadcast on six continents, Robert Rollin's compositions have been required jury pieces in the U.S.A., France, and South Africa. His publishers include Subito Press/Seesaw Music Corporation, Acoma/Nambe Editions, E.C. Schirmer, and Bourne Music Publishers. He serves as Associate Editor of the music theory journal Ex tempore and has authored many articles on music composition and history. An active pianist, he is founder and coordinator of the International Dana New Music Festival, now in its 25th year, and he also conducts the Dana Festival Chamber Orchestra, a professional group. Rollin's recent premieres and guest residencies have taken him around the world.

Robert Rollin guest conducts the Kiev Philharmonic Orchestra in Symphonic Images, a recording of four of his works for violin and orchestra with soloist Walter Mony. Rollin currently serves as Chair of Graduate and Undergraduate Composition at the Dana School of Music (Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio).

Lecture Topics

The following topics are based on Robert Rollin's published articles, monographs and/or presentations at international, national, or regional conventions, and professional guest-composer residencies:

American Music

The Native Americans: Music, Cults and Cultures
Aspects of Native American Aculturation (with Attention to Musical, Artistic, Social, and Political Crosscurrents and with Comparison to South African Contexts)
Extra Musical Influences on the American Composer
The Experimental Composer and His Audience
New Music Organizations Inside and Outside of the University
The Music of Karel Husa
Jewish Music in America: A Variety of Traditions
The Age of Gershwin
Hollywood Film Composer Johnterryl Plumeri

General

Humanistic Influences on Musical Creation
New Music from Mexico
Creativity in Music and Other Disciplines (based on ideas of Arthur Koestler)
New Directions in Contemporary Music
Important Composers of the Teresienstadt Ghetto, 1942-45
The Composer and the Humanities
New Music and Broadcasting
The Composer and the University
New Music Festivals: Their Importance and Limitations
New Music in Australia and New Zealand
Film Music

Technical

Analysis of Twentieth-Century Music
Composition Pedagogy
Irving Berlin's "Lazy": Chromaticism, Linear Elements, and Permeable Harmony
Some Recent Rhythmic Techniques
Spatial and Temporal Techniques: An Investigation
The Music of György Ligeti (his early work, innovative contributions, and mature output)
The Music of Terezin (a series of 8 analytical lectures on works by Gideon Klein, Victor Ullmann, Hans Krása, and Pavel Haas; four sample lectures listed below):
1. Victor Ullmann's Der Kaiser von Atlantis: an Opera with a Powerful Message
2. Harmony and Form in Gideon Klein's Sonata for Piano
3. Hans Krása's Brundibár, a Children's Opera from Terezin
4. Words, Music, and Structure in Pavel Haas' Four Chinese Songs
American Composer, Louise Talma's Piano Sonata
Karel Husa's Concerto for Orchestra (1986): An Analysis
On Words, Music, and Voices; A Study of Recent Innovations in Vocal Music
Cross-Cultural Influences on Contemporary Music: A Composer's Perspective
Some Thoughts on Writing Music for Brass
East Indian Music as a Source for Contemporary Composition
Approaches for the Analysis of Sound Mass Composition (examples from the music of Lutoslawski, Penderecki, Ligeti, Xenakis, and others)
Closed and Open Form in the Music of Contemporary Composers (eg. György Ligeti, John Adams, Michael Torke, Steve Reich, Terry Riley and others)
Analysis of Selected Songs and Instrumental Works of Gershwin
Analysis of Selected Songs of the Beatles
Beginnings: A Multi-Volume Set of Pedagogical Piano Pieces

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