Robert Paterson, VYO Music Alive Composer-in Residence
The Vermont Youth Orchestra Association is pleased to welcome Music Alive composer Robert Paterson as he returns for his second year of residency with the VYO.
The Music Alive Composer-in-Residence program was funded by a $65,000 grant awarded to the VYOA by Meet The Composer and the League of American Orchestras. This program provides young musicians with an opportunity to work with a skilled, living composer, an experience that can extend beyond the residency into our students' future musical endeavors. The VYO is only the second youth orchestra in the country to receive a three-year award during the 2009 grant cycle.
As the Composer-in-Residence, Mr. Paterson will spend three weeks a year in Vermont, working directly with VYO musicians, beginning in 2009 and continuing through 2012. This year, Mr. Paterson began working with the students during the Reveille! Music Festival. He served as member of the faculty, teaching two different music appreciation classes to VYO and VYP members. He returned to the ELMC in November, participating in VYO rehearsals and percussion sectionals, teaching percussion classes to third and fifth-grade students at the Magnet School located at H.O. Wheeler in Burlington. He also collaborated with the Vermont MIDI Project and participated in several media interviews. In January 2010, he will return to continue working with the VYO on his piece, Enlightened City, which the orchestra will present during January 24 Winter Concert at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts. Patterson's residency will culminate in the creation of a new work, written for the VYO and the VYO Choruses. This new work will be previewed during the 2011-12 season.
Paterson is no stranger to Vermont. As a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, he relocated to Burlington with wife Victoria, a violinist and former Middlebury resident, in the mid-1990's. He immersed himself in the active music scene, performing with the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, the University of Vermont Orchestra and the Vermont Composers Consortium. He also performed for Lyric Theatre productions at the Flynn Center for the Performing Arts and collaborated on various projects with local musicians. He and his wife are founding members of The American Modern Ensemble, a New York-based ensemble dedicated to premiering, performing, recording and commissioning the widest possible repertoire written by American composers. AME showcases American music, and especially works written by living composers and is dedicated to education and outreach programs that expose communities to American music.
Paterson's work as a composer ranges from orchestral pieces and opera to choral music and music scored for dance. The l'Orchestre National de la Loire, in France, the Philharmonia Quintet of Poland, the Louisville Orchestra, baritone-bass David Neal and the Society for New Music, and the American Modern Ensemble have all presented Paterson's compositions during recent performances. During the coming year, several different CDs of his work will be released commercially.
Paterson holds degrees from the Eastman School of Music (BM), Indiana University (MM) and Cornell University (DMA). Currently, he resides in New York with his family.
Paterson will be blogging about his experiences with the VYOA. Simply click on the VYO blog tab located on the homepage to access his posts.
Robert Paterson's Music Alive residency is a program of the American Symphony Orchestra League & Meet The Composer. Funding for Music Alive is provided by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, The Aaron Copland Fund for Music, and the ASCAP Foundation Joseph & Rosalie Meyer Fund.
Additional Information: www.robpaterson.com
Read the Times Argus feature on Rob Paterson's residency with the VYO here.
