Biography
Robert Kyr stands out as a highly productive composer whose output reflects an eclectic mix of sources, among them earlier musical periods, global folk and classical practices, ecological themes, and metaphysical concepts. In parallel, he has established himself as a key instructor in both composition and music theory.
Born on April 20, 1952, in Cleveland, Ohio, Kyr completed his undergraduate work at Yale University and received a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude. He next spent time in Britain, studying at the Royal College of Music and attending the Dartington Summer School for the Arts, where Peter Maxwell Davies served as his mentor. Returning to the United States, he earned a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978 under the guidance of George Rochberg and George Crumb.
Throughout the 1980s Kyr taught composition and theory at several institutions, including Yale, UCLA, and the Hartt School of Music in Connecticut. He later pursued doctoral studies at Harvard, obtaining his PhD in 1989 after working with Donald Martino and Earl Kim. During these years he began receiving commissions from groups such as the Harvard Glee Club, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the Yale Camerata.
In 1990 Kyr joined the faculty of the University of Oregon and has continued there to the present. While many subsequent commissions have originated with West Coast ensembles, among them Chanticleer, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and the Oregon Symphony, others have come from organizations in Scotland, Estonia, and Russia. His music resists classification as either modernist or neo-Romantic; it remains tonal yet draws on an expansive range of influences from both world traditions and multiple eras of Western music.
Contemporary events and environmental awareness frequently shape his creative choices, and a number of his pieces, including the environmental oratorio A Time for Life for chorus and string trio completed in 2007, also carry a spiritual dimension. Commercial recordings of his work first appeared in the mid-1990s when the Third Angle New Music Ensemble released his three violin concertos subtitled “On the Nature of Love,” “On the Nature of Harmony,” and “On the Nature of Peace.” To date more than twenty-five compositions have been recorded. In 2021 the Antioch Chamber Ensemble issued the album Robert Kyr: In Praise of Music on the Bridge label.
Born on April 20, 1952, in Cleveland, Ohio, Kyr completed his undergraduate work at Yale University and received a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude. He next spent time in Britain, studying at the Royal College of Music and attending the Dartington Summer School for the Arts, where Peter Maxwell Davies served as his mentor. Returning to the United States, he earned a master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1978 under the guidance of George Rochberg and George Crumb.
Throughout the 1980s Kyr taught composition and theory at several institutions, including Yale, UCLA, and the Hartt School of Music in Connecticut. He later pursued doctoral studies at Harvard, obtaining his PhD in 1989 after working with Donald Martino and Earl Kim. During these years he began receiving commissions from groups such as the Harvard Glee Club, the Radcliffe Choral Society, and the Yale Camerata.
In 1990 Kyr joined the faculty of the University of Oregon and has continued there to the present. While many subsequent commissions have originated with West Coast ensembles, among them Chanticleer, the San Francisco Symphony Chorus, and the Oregon Symphony, others have come from organizations in Scotland, Estonia, and Russia. His music resists classification as either modernist or neo-Romantic; it remains tonal yet draws on an expansive range of influences from both world traditions and multiple eras of Western music.
Contemporary events and environmental awareness frequently shape his creative choices, and a number of his pieces, including the environmental oratorio A Time for Life for chorus and string trio completed in 2007, also carry a spiritual dimension. Commercial recordings of his work first appeared in the mid-1990s when the Third Angle New Music Ensemble released his three violin concertos subtitled “On the Nature of Love,” “On the Nature of Harmony,” and “On the Nature of Peace.” To date more than twenty-five compositions have been recorded. In 2021 the Antioch Chamber Ensemble issued the album Robert Kyr: In Praise of Music on the Bridge label.