Musical Spheres
Lightness, Panache, and Glistening Sonorities
The Orchestral Music of Rob Keeley and Robert Carl
There are a few composers out there writing exquisite and accessible orchestral music, but they may not necessarily be those who you might have heard of, or who are winning today’s prizes. Two of these are Rob Keeley and Robert Carl.
Rob Keeley was born in Bridgend, Wales in 1960. His musical life started with listening to his dad’s small record collection and his grandmother’s piano playing. Soon, he too was playing piano and oboe, and then singing in the school choir. He studied with Oliver Knussen before he became, well, Oliver Knussen, and composers he fancied early on included late Stravinsky, Carter, Britten, Tippett, Dallapiccola and Messiaen. In the late 80s he studied with Franco Donatoni in Rome and then with Leonard Bernstein and Hans Werner Henze at Tanglewood—the Boston Symphony’s summer retreat in the Berkshires, which also includes an important composers fellowship program. He subsequently taught at King’s College London for many years.
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