Robert Fleisher

Robert Jay Fleisher (b. 1953, New York City)[1] is a composer, the author of Twenty Israeli Composers,[2] and a contributor to Theresa Sauer’s Notations 21.[3][4] He is Professor Emeritus at Northern Illinois University,[5] where he long served as Coordinator of the Music Theory and Composition area.

Education

Fleisher received his baccalaureate degree in Music Theory and Composition at the University of Colorado. He earned his M.M. and D.M.A. Composition degrees at the University of Illinois, studying with Ben Johnston and Salvatore Martirano.[1]

Reception

Fleisher’s solo and chamber music has been called “eloquent,”[6] “lovely and emotional,"[7] “ingenious,”[8] and praised for its “astoundingly attractive vertical sonorities.”[9] A review of the CD Portraits (Capstone, 2008) featuring soprano Lynn Eustis, baritone Robert Best, and pianist Elvia Puccinelli, notes that his Five Songs from Carl Sandburg's "Prairie" for soprano and piano "are particularly apt in how they embody the spirit of the texts so convincingly, with an openness that never feels empty."[10] Fleisher's electroacoustic works have been described as “fascinating,”[11] “endearingly low-tech,” and possessing “a rich, tactile texture.”[12]

Some of his earlier works employing untraditional music notation have been exhibited in the United States, including Sylvia Smith’s “Scribing Sound” exhibitions at the 1984 (Hartford, CT) and 1986 (Houston, TX) New Music America festivals, as well as in France and the Netherlands (2012) in connection with Theresa Sauer’s book, Notations 21. Fleisher is represented in that collection (inspired by John Cage's 1965 Notations) by both a score sample and his invited essay, "Being of Sound (and Visual) Mind," which is highlighted in a New Music Connoisseur[13] review.

Discography

Publications

  • Fleisher, Robert (1997). Twenty Israeli Composers: Voices of a Culture. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 9780814326480.

References

  1. ^ a b Floyd, James Michael (2011). "Fleisher, Robert". Composers in the classroom : a bio-bibliography of composers at conservatories, colleges, and universities in the United States. Scarecrow Press. ISBN 9780810877757.
  2. ^ Stein, Marion M. (September 1998). "Twenty Israeli Composers: Voices of a Culture". Notes. 55 (1). Gale Academic OneFile. doi:10.2307/900382. JSTOR 900382.
  3. ^ Theresa Sauer (2009). Notations 21. Mark Batty Publisher. ISBN 978-0-9795546-4-3.
  4. ^ Frank Retzel, review of Notations 21 by Theresa Sauer (Mark Batty Publisher, 2008), in New Music Connoisseur 18:1 (Spring 2010): 26-27.
  5. ^ "Northern Illinois University".
  6. ^ Bruce Martin, review of CD "Syncopated Lady" (Tomoko Deguchi, piano), Ann Arbor News, Nov 27, 1999.
  7. ^ Lia Pas, Musicworks 70 (Spring 1998): 48.
  8. ^ Bruce Hodges, "Casals Trio: Weill Recital Hall, 12 May 2015" in The Strad (August 2015): 74-75.
  9. ^ Lisa R. Dominick, "The Eighteenth Annual Festival/Conference of the American Society of University Composers: The Composer in the University Reexamined," Perspectives of New Music 21 (Autumn 1982-Summer 1983): 380.
  10. ^ Gregory Berg, "The Listener's Gallery," Journal of Singing (March/April, 2011): 489-490.
  11. ^ Colin Clarke, Review of "ILTA" (Neuma Records, 2022), Fanfare (March/April 2023), 420.
  12. ^ Kozinn, Allan (June 18, 2010). "Where Composers Lend their Voices". The New York Times. p. C11. Archived from the original on June 12, 2024. Retrieved September 2, 2025.
  13. ^ Retzel, Frank (Spring 2010). "Theresa Sauer: Notations 21". New Music Connoisseur. 18 (1): 26–27.


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