Robert Owens (composer)

Owens was born in Denison, Texas, but grew up in Berkeley, California. Owens began playing piano at age 4 (taught by his mother Alpharetta Helm[2]), composing at age 8, and performing at age 10.[3]

After serving in the U.S. Army during World War II, Owens used the G.I. Bill to pursue musical education in Europe.[1] He studied under Jules Gentil and Alfred Cortot at the École Normale de Musique de Paris in Paris between 1946-1950. In 1952, he debuted as a concert pianist in Copenhagen.[4] He continued his studies under Grete Hinterhofer at the Vienna Academy of Music between 1953-1957.[2][3]

Owens returned to the United States in 1957 to teach music at Albany State College in Georgia. During this time, he began setting the poems of Langston Hughes to music. In 1959, he relocated to Hamburg, Germany; in 1964, he moved to Munich. In Germany, he got a job as a film actor, and was soon in demand as a film and stage actor, composer, and pianist.[1]

Owens's only completed opera, Kultur! Kultur!, was premiered in Ulm, Germany, in 1970;[3] an English translation was premiered at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln on August 7, 2015.[5]

Owens died January 5, 2017 in Munich.[2]

Owens wrote and performed his First Piano Concerto with Berkeley’s Young Peoples’ Symphony at the age of 15.[1] He wrote many songs throughout his long career, using the poetry of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Waring Cuney, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Countee Cullen, and Langston Hughes.[6] In 2006, he wrote the Idomeneo Quartet for oboe and strings, based on Mozart's opera of the same name.[1]

A collection of Owens's published works, concert programs and reviews, photographs and other memorabilia resides at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.[7]

• International Lifetime Achievement Award, from the National Association of Negro Musicians (2008)[1]
• The Preisträger International Lifetime Achievement Award from AnDante Kulturmagazin[2]
• "Lift Every Voice" Legacy Award for lifetime achievement in opera, from the National Opera Association (2009)[1][2]
• Friend of the Arts, Kappa chapter of Sigma Alpha Iota (2009)[1]
• Artist-in-residence at University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, University of Wisconsin-River Falls, Texas Southern University, and University of Nebraska-Lincoln[1][2]

• Dunbar Music Archive (contains Owens's settings of Dunbar's poems)
• Fields of Wonder: Exploring the Langston Hughes Song Cycles of Robert Owens
• List of Owens's songs from Lieder.net
• Robert Owens Biography from Afrovoices.com