User:Adagioarts

Robert Owens, composer and concert pianist, was born February, 1925 in Dennison, Texas. A "wunderkind", Owens began playing the piano at 3 and composing at 10. The Owens family relocated from Texas to Berkeley, California when Robert was 3 years of age and by the time he was 16 years of age he had composed several works including a piano concerto which was performed by him and the Berkeley (California) Youth Orchestra.

After serving in the Army, Owens studied composition in France and Germany while performing piano recitals throughout Europe and Scandinavia. From 1956 to 1958 Owens taught at Albany State College in Georgia, then returned to Europe to continue studying and concertizing. During his time at Albany State, Mr. Owens was invited to meet poet, Langston Hughes who gave him a collection of poems, Fields of Wonder, (1947) to set compositionally. The depth of meaning in the poetry resulted in Owens composing a series of song cycles for various voice types. He then began composing works using the poetry of other poets like Countee Cullen, Hugo von Hoffmanstahl, Hermann Hesse, Emily Bronte, Paul Lawrence Dunbar, and others.

Robert Owens currently resides in Munich, Germany and has recently returned to America on several occasions to record his compositions, present master classes and seminars, and consult with music educators dedicated to promoting his works internationally.

[This is the initial installment of a much more detailed account of the life and music of an American musical icon of African decent who is worthy of recognition by the "classical" music community.] -Dr. Philip J. Rogers, Spelman College of Atlanta, Ga. His dissertation is entitled, ROBERT OWENS SETS LANGSTON HUGHES: A PEDAGOGICAL STUDY OF THREE SONG CYCLES FOR BARITONE AND PIANO COLLABORATION, University of Illinois, 2000