Robert Honstein

New York-based composer Robert Honstein is noted for avant-garde works that offer a sense of fun. He is the founder of two major contemporary music events. Honstein was born in Syracuse, New York, in 1980 but was raised in New Jersey. His initial training was as a pianist and singer. Honstein attended Yale University as an undergraduate from 1999 to 2004, earning a music degree. He moved to the University of Texas at Austin for a master's degree in composition, completing that degree in 2007, and then returned to Yale for another master's and then a doctorate from 2008 to 2014. His master's thesis dealt with the influence of pop production on contemporary concert music compositional techniques, and his doctoral recital consisted of his own works. His teachers at Yale included Martin Bresnick, David Lang, and Christopher Theofanidis. Among Honstein's earliest works to be recorded was Patter for violin, cello, and marimba (2010); percussion instruments have been featured in several of his works. In 2014, he released the album Re: You on the New Focus label. Honstein has composed orchestral, chamber, vocal, and film music. His orchestral works have been programmed by such groups as the Albany Symphony, the Dayton Philharmonic, and the Orchestre Symphonique de Mulhouse in France. Honstein's music has been in demand among many ensembles specializing in contemporary music, including Eighth Blackbird, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble, New Music Detroit, and the Mivos Quartet. He has engaged in many interdisciplinary collaborations, including those with director Daniel Fish, photographer Chris McCaw, and projection designer Hannah Wasileski, and several of his works have been choreographed and presented by dance companies. Honstein's film score for The Real Charlie Chaplin was nominated for an Emmy Award. Honstein is the founder of the Boston music series Times Two and of Fast Forward Austin, an annual contemporary music festival. He is also a founding member of the composer collective Sleeping Giant. He has issued several solo albums on New Focus, and in 2023 several of his compositions were collected on the album Lost and Found on that label.
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