Biography
Paterson studied composition with Christopher Rouse, Samuel Adler, Joseph Schwantner, Warren Benson and David Liptak at the Eastman School of Music, graduating in 1995. At Eastman, he was a double major and studied percussion with John Beck. He received a Master's Degree in Composition in 2001 from Indiana University, where he studied with Frederick Fox and Eugene O'Brien. In 2004, he received a DMA in Music Composition from Cornell University where he studied with Steven Stucky and Roberto Sierra. He also studied privately with Aaron Jay Kernis at the Atlantic Center for the Arts in 2000, and in 1999 he studied with John Harbison and Bernard Rands at the Aspen Summer Festival, as part of the Advanced Master Class and as the recipient of the Second ASCAP Aspen Film Fellowship. Paterson's music has been performed throughout the United States, Europe, Asia, Australia and Africa. His music is influenced by nature, rock and roll, jazz, world music and the music of other classical composers.
Paterson's performances and commissions include works for such internationally acclaimed ensembles as the Louisville Orchestra, Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Quintet of the Americas, the Chamber Choir of Europe and the Volti Choir of San Francisco. Other ensembles that have performed Paterson's works include The New York New Music Ensemble, Fireworks Ensemble, MAYA, Da Capo Chamber Players, California EAR Unit, Cygnus, Ensemble Aleph (Paris), Ensemble Nouvelles Consonances (Belgium), the Kairos String Quartet, the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, the Russian Chamber Orchestra, the MANCA Festival presented by the Centre National de Creation Musicale (CIRM) and the June in Buffalo new music festival.
Paterson is the Classical Recording Foundation 2011 Composer of The Year for his forthcoming CD The Book of Goddesses. He has received fellowships and residencies from the MacDowell Colony, Aspen Music Festival, Cornell University and Atlantic Center for the Arts, in addition to grants and awards from Meet The Composer, the American Music Center, ASCAP, the American Composers Forum, the Jerome Composers Commissioning Program, the National Foundation for the Advancement of the Arts, the Copland Award and the Society for New Music's Brian M. Israel Prize. Paterson appears on recordings for American Modern Recordings (AMR), Mode Records, Bridge Records, Centaur Records, Capstone, and Riax.
As well as being a composer, Paterson is also a percussionist and has "been instrumental in the commissioning of six-mallet works for solo marimba" and has to date, written fourteen works using a six-mallet technique (extended technique) he developed.
Paterson is founder and artistic director of the American Modern Ensemble and lives in New York, New York with his wife Victoria Paterson, a violinist and their son Dylan.
Read more about this topic: Robert Paterson (composer)
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