AME to Perform Paterson’s Sextet and Sonata, 6/7

Composer Robert Paterson's Sextet and Sonata for Bassoon and Piano will be performed by the American Music Ensemble as part of Travelin' Music on Thursday, June 7 at 7:30pm at Merkin Concert Hall (129 W. 67th St., NYC). The concert explores travel-inspired music and also includes Steve Reich's Different Trains, John Adams' Road Movies, D.J. Sparr's Woodlawn Drive, selections from Erik Friedlander's Block Ice and Propane, and Billy Strayhorn's Take The A Train.

Paterson composed his Sonata for Bassoon and Piano in 2001 for a concert taking place at the Thomas Edison Inn in Port Huron, Michigan. The first movement, Edison's Ears, is inspired by a legendary story about the ear problems Edison suffered from throughout his childhood in Port Huron. The second movement, Mina's Tapping, draws its inspiration from Edison's wife, Mina Miller, who communicated with her deaf husband by tapping Morse Code on his hand. The final movement, Invention Factory Eureka, is inspired by Edison's revolutionary business model, the world's first "invention factory."

AME musicians for this concert are: Sato Moughalian, flute; Ben Fingland, clarinet; Charles McCracken, bassoon; Nurit Pacht, violin; Victoria Paterson, violin; Orlando Wells, viola; Robert Burkhart, cello; Blair McMillen, piano; Toby Singer, piano; and Robert Paterson, conductor.

Robert Paterson's richly colorful, wildly eclectic and intensely rhythmic music is influenced by visual art, nature, machines, and more, and is inspired by everything from the changing seasons, crashing waves, and Dali's melting clocks to the life of New York Mets Baseball catcher Mike Piazza. 

Recent honors include winning the Cincinnati Camerata Composition Competition, the Copland Award, Louisville Orchestra Composition Competition, Brian Israel Prize, two ASCAP Young Composer Awards, and grants from Meet The Composer, the American Music Center, the American Composers Forum and ASCAP, as well as fellowships to Yaddo, the MacDowell Colony, the Aspen Music Festival, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, and a Music Alive residency with the Vermont Youth Orchestra Association, sponsored by Meet The Composer and the League of American Orchestras.

Paterson has received degrees from Eastman (BM), Indiana University (MM), and Cornell University (DMA). He resides in New York City with his wife, Victoria, a violinist, and their young son Dylan.