Erika Dohi
Grand Tour i. Per by Robert Honstein
Erika Dohi performs 'Per' from Robert Honstein's 'Grand Tour' at Tenri Cultural Institute in New York in October 2016.
Robert Honstein www.roberthonstein.com
Erika Dohi www.erikadohi.com
Audio by Joe Patrych www.patrych.com
Video by Simon Yu www.simonyuproduction.com
Celebrated for his “roiling, insistent orchestral figuration” (New York Times) and “glittery, percussive pieces” (Toronto Globe and Mail), composer Robert Honstein (b. 1980) is a composer of orchestral, chamber, and vocal music.
Robert’s music has been performed by leading orchestras, ensembles around the country including the American Composers Orchestra, Cabrillo Festival Orchestra, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, the New York Youth Symphony, eighth blackbird, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, Ensemble Dal Niente, Ensemble ACJW, the Mivos Quartet, the Del Sol Quartet, the Deviant Septet, Present Music, New Morse Code, TIGUE, Concert Black, and the Sebastians among others.
He has received awards, grants and recognition from Carnegie Hall, Copland House, the New York Youth Symphony, ASCAP, the Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute, the Albany Symphony Orchestra, New Music USA, and the League of American Orchestras. His work has been featured at numerous festivals including the The Tanglewood Music Center, the Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, the Bang on a Can Summer Institute, and the Bowling Green New Music Festival. He has also received residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Copland House, and I-Park.
Robert is a founding member of the New York based composer collective Sleeping Giant, a group of “five talented guys” (The New Yorker) that are “rapidly gaining notice for their daring innovations, stylistic range and acute attention to instrumental nuance” (WQXR). Recent seasons have seen collaborations with Ensemble ACJW and the Deviant Septet. For the 2014–15 and 2015–16 seasons Sleeping Giant are composers in residence with the Albany Symphony Orchestra as part of New Music USA’s Music Alive program.
Robert co-founded Fast Forward Austin, an annual marathon new music festival in Austin, TX. Described as “the first ever classical music event in Austin to make its own beer koozies” (Austin American Statesmen), Fast Forward Austin features local and national, cutting-edge artists in a “welcomingly relaxed venue… [that] tapped into what is so great about the Austin vibe: a community of people who are artistically curious, non- doctrinaire, and unpretentious” (NewMusicBox).
Upcoming projects include commissions from the Albany Symphony Orchestra, Third Angle, and Hub New Music. His debut album RE: You was released by New Focus Recordings in 2014 and his second album, Night Scenes from the Ospedale, a collaboration with the Sebastians, was released on Soundspells Productions in 2015. In April 2016, Hand Eye, Sleeping Giant’s evening length collaboration with eighth blackbird, will be released on Cedille Records.
