My Biography

Hailed by the press as having “creative powers working on a high plane” and writing “exuberant and rhythmically vital music marked by energy and a wonderful sense of color,” Robert Paterson’s music is in demand by audiences and musicians alike. He has received performances in the United States and Internationally by many outstanding ensembles, including the Louisville Orchestra, Russian Chamber Orchestra, Da Capo Chamber Players, California EAR Unit, Ensemble Aleph and at the June in Buffalo Festival. Beginning in 2009, Paterson will begin a three-year residency with the Vermont Youth Orchestra Association through a Meet The Composer/League of American Orchestra Music Alive Residcncy, culminating in a major commission for a work for orchestra and chorus. He is currently working on a new, full-length, two-act opera with writer and librettist David Cote entitled A Child Possessed, based on the award-winning novel by R. C. Hutchinson.

A Copland Award recipient, his many awards include winning the Brian Israel Prize, the Louisville Orchestra Composition Competition and twice winning the ASCAP Young Composer’s Award. He has received grants from Meet the Composer, ASCAP and the American Music Center and fellowships to the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, Aspen Music Festival and Atlantic Center for the Arts. He is the founder and Artistic Director of the American Modern Ensemble and resides in New York City with his wife, Victoria, a violinist, and their son Dylan.

[May, 2008]