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2025-2026 Season Preview!
Robert Honstein's 25-26 Season Preview
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Robert Honstein's 25-26 Season Preview

Performing Sonnets for soprano, percussion and piano at the Sheung Wan Civic Centre Theater, Hong Kong with soprano Joanne Shao and percussionist Matthew Lau, June 7, 2025 (Photo Credit: Jeff Cheng)

 

 

Hello friends,

Happy fall and the start of the 2025-26 concert season! I have some exciting premieres coming up, but first, I wanted to let you know that I’ve accepted the position as Clinical Assistant Professor of Music at NYU Steinhardt, starting this year. As most of you know, I've been teaching and working at NYU in various capacities for almost ten years. During that time, working with NYU students and colleagues has been a privilege, joy and source of constant inspiration. I'm thrilled to continue that work in this new role and excited to see where it takes me next. On to the music...

Last season ended on a high note, with a week long residency with the Up:Strike Project at The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts, culminating in a portrait concert where I performed in a new version of my Sonnets for soprano, percussion, and piano, while the Up:Strike Project premiered my Yet in my sad heart for percussion quartet and track alongside older works, Patter and Is it Auburn?. We were even interviewed on Hong Kong’s RTHK, with a preview performance of Sonnets (Video here).

On the premiere front, I’m currently finishing up a large chamber ensemble work for Rocket City New Music. Premiering December 20th in Huntsville, AL, with a Meet-the-Composer event on the 18th, the three-movement work is scored for eight performers (oboe, clarinet/bass clarinet, trumpet, violin, viola, cello, vibraphone, and piano). In March and April, percussionist Garrett Arney will premiere the wind ensemble arrangement of my percussion concerto, Juvenalia, with the ASU Wind Symphony, Yale Concert Band, and East Carolina University Wind Ensemble. Finally, the complete eight-part song cycle Sonnets for soprano and chamber ensemble will be premiered and recorded by the No Exit New Music in Ohio May 28-30, 2026

Last but not least, keep your ears out for an album of my string quartets, slated for release in June 2026 on New Focus Recordings. Much more to come about that as we get closer to the release date. In the meantime, please take a look at my full season calendar here: https://www.roberthonstein.com/202526-season

Thanks for tuning in,

Robert
Recent Works:

Yet in my sad heart for percussion quartet and track

Sonnets, version for soprano, percussion and piano

Music to Hear, commissioned by The Living Earth Show and Tanner Porter (more info soon)
Interview/Performance on Ratio Television Hong Kong
Upcoming Performances
  • Oct. 3: "Bow Lines" from An Economy of Means in Cologne, Germany
  • Oct. 29: De Apostolis in Manitoba, Canada
  • Nov. 2: Iwo Jedynecki and Karolina Mikolajczyk perform selections of Floriography, arranged for accordion and violin.
  • Nov.13-15: VT Percussion Ensemble performs An Index of Possibility with choreography at PASIC 
  • Jan. 30: The Living Earth Show with Tanner Porter perform Music to Hear at PIVOT Festival in San Francisco
  • Feb. 14: Colin Currie & Ensemble 360 perform Continuous Interior
Yet in My Sad Heart was commissioned by The Up:Strike Project, Dr. Matthew Lau & Karen Yu, directors. It was premiered on Saturday, June 8, 2025 at the Sheung Wan Civic Centre Theater, Hong Kong by the Up:Strike Project, featuring Matthew Lau, Karen Yu, Samuel Chan, and Bevis Ng.
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Chaplin Soundtrack is out today!

My new album The Real Charlie Chaplin (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) is out today!

The day is finally here, friends. I hope that you can take the time to listen to these cues from The Real Charlie Chaplin. It was such a joy to make this score and also a huge learning process. I'm really proud of where it landed and thrilled to be sharing it with you today. Coinciding with Bandcamp Friday, this soundtrack album also marks the creation of my label Up in the Attic Records.

Let me know what you think and please share it with your friends!

- Rob

Available on All Digital Platforms
 
Middle Ground Album Pre-sale

Middle Ground, an album recorded by violinist Kate Stenberg, features this work in three movements. Please check out this beautiful performance and read the liner notes by the engaging music journalist Vanessa Ague.

The digital album can be ordered through Other Minds Records here: https://othermindsrecords.bandcamp.com/album/middle-ground

Middle Ground_Cover.jpg

Credits:

releases March 12, 2021

Kate Stenberg - Violin

Produced by Robert Honstein
Recorded and edited by Ryan Streber at Oktaven Audio, Mount Vernon, NY
Mixed by Devin Greenwood at the Honey Jar, Brooklyn, NY
Mastered by Andrew Weathers

Video by Four/Ten media (Kevin Eikenberg and Evan Chapman)
Design by Laura Grey with Molly Haig
Liner Notes by Vanessa Ague

Middle Ground was commissioned by Kat Kroll, Barbara Sapienza, and Nancy Karp + Dancers and premiered February 10, 2016 by Kate Stenberg at the ODC Theater, San Francisco, CA

Gratitude and thanks to Kate Stenberg, Ryan Streber, Devin Greenwood, Laura Grey, Evan Chapman, Kevin Eikenberg, Other Minds, Andrew Weathers, Vanessa Ague, Nancy Karp, Kat Kroll, Barbara Sapienza, Nick Noyes, and Thekla Hammond.

 
Album featuring Elliott Smith arrangements
Click on the image to Order

Click on the image to Order

Third Angle New Music presents “Everything Means Nothing To Me”

Album available here: https://www.thirdangle.org/albums/everything-means-nothing-to-me

Featuring my arrangements of “Biggest Lie”, “Waltz #1”, and “Southern Belle”. 


The recorded works of Third Angle New Music in their 2018 concert “A Fond Farewell,” reimagining the music of singer-songwriter Elliott Smith as a suite of classical art-songs. Presents the music of six nationally lauded composers: Christopher Cerrone, LJ White, Robert Honstein, Scott Wollschleger, Ted Hearne, and Jacob Cooper. The second album on the Third Angle Records imprint.

 
Soul House Album Out Now!

Hub New Music and Robert Honstein: Soul House

Album out TODAY on New Amsterdam Records.
 
I'm incredibly excited to announce the release of Soul House, recorded by the wonderful Hub New Music. Out yesterday through New Amsterdam Records’ Windmill Series, this album features all nine movements of Soul House, with liner notes by Steve Smith.

This piece is near and dear to me and I couldn't have more fearlessly committed interpreters than Hub. I hope you will give it a listen!

More info on the release: https://www.newamrecords.com/albums/soul-house

Click on the image to Order

Click on the image to Order

New Music Video of the movement “Backyard”!

the arts fuse review of the album

Honstein’s score, which was commissioned by HNM, features a mix of graceful, idiomatic, and virtuosic writing for the ensemble, which plays it here with tremendous control.

- Jonathan Blumhofer, artsfuse

Click Here to Buy Soul House
 
Soul House Album Pre-Order!

Soul House | Hub New Music & Robert Honstein

Memory, nostalgia, longtime associations, and enduring relationships: these are the raw materials from which Soul House, the recording by the vital Boston ensemble Hub New Music, was constructed. Out via New Amsterdam’s Windmill Series on June 29 and available on all digital platforms on August 7, the recording comprises a single work by New York composer Robert Honstein, who formed a close bond with Hub during a period when he lived and worked in Boston.

- New Amsterdam Press Release

Click on the image to Pre-Order

Click on the image to Pre-Order

This coincides with the release of my music video with Hub New Music of “Secret Place”!