Albert,
Donnie Ray
Capuzzi, Giuseppe Antonio
Carrettin, Zachary
CSUN Wind Ensemble
Drew, James
Estes, Steve
Ewer, Gregory
Floyd, Carlisle
Goldsmith, Kenneth
Harlow, Russell
Hogan, Moses
Jensen, John
Johnson, Hall
King, Terry
LaMotte, Adam
Lloyd, Jr., Charles
Mirecourt Trio
Morgan, Leslie
Owens, Robert
Reale, Paul
Ritacca, Jo Anne
Tarragó,
Leticia
Smith, Hale
Vandervelde, Janika
Whitwell, David
ROBERT
OWENS
(b. 1925)
Cinnabar
Recordings:
Tearless
Composer Robert Owens is an artist of diverse gifts and accomplishments. Born in 1925, in Denison, Texas, he grew up in Berkeley, California. Emulating his mother, Alpharetta Helm-Owens, a brilliant pianist, he began playing the piano at the age of four, composing at eight, and performing publically at ten. When he was just fifteen, he wrote and performed his first Piano Concerto with Berkeley’s Young Peoples’ Symphony, under Jessica Marcelli.
After serving in the military, he continued his musical studies in Paris at the École Normale de Musique under Jules Gentil and the renowned pianist Alfred Cortot, from 1946-1950.
In 1952, his formal debut as a concert pianist in Copenhagen was met with rave reviews. While continuing to concertize and compose, he took Master Classes in Vienna under Professor Grete Hinterhofer from 1953-57. After teaching in the United States for two years, he returned to Europe in 1959, to live and work in Germany, combining his work as a composer, pianist, and stage actor.
In 1970, his first opera, Kultur! Kultur! was performed in German, in the opera house of Ulm, to great critical acclaim. As an actor, he is much in demand for roles such as the title role in Shakespeare’s Othello, the Professor in Ionescu’s The Lesson, and other major roles in Gardner’s I’m Not Rappaport, Athol Fugard’s Master Harold & the Boys, and Uhry’s Driving Miss Daisy, and he has acted on all the important stages in Germany. As a pianist, he continues to concertize and to collaborate with many fine singers. Mr. Owens has taught at Albany College in Albany, Georgia, Ann Arbor University in Michigan, the University of Wisconsin in River Falls, and Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Mr. Owens’ works are frequently broadcast on Bavarian Radio, and many have been recorded on the labels of Naxos, Cinnabar, and Albany.
