We are excited to let you know about three important releases this fall!

1. Evergreen, for two percussionists, had its live premiere in September, featuring the outstanding Seattle-based Arx Duo. They have upcoming performances in Bellevue, WA (livestreamed), Omaha, NE, and Mission Woods, KS.

2. The brand new Echolocate, commissioned for saxophone and percussion by the Hutchens/Myers Duo, receives its premiere October 26th at the University of South Carolina.

3. My first film score for The Real Charlie Chaplin is making the festival rounds this Fall. See a review here. It premiered a Telluride and will be released in theaters this fall and then air on Showtime.

THE REAL CHARLIE CHAPLIN. Courtesy of SHOWTIME / TELLURIDE FILM FESTIVAL

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Check out Zoom interview with WGTE’s Brad Cresswell about Middle Ground!

Originally posted here: https://www.wgte.org/radio/podcasts/classical-conversations/robert-honstein-middle-ground

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Arx Duo premieres Evergreen, a 30-minute, five movement percussion duo, presented by Seattle’s Sustain Music Project.

Presented by Sustain Music Project
Performed by arx duo (Garrett Arney and Mari Yoshinaga)
Artwork by Eva Vernitska

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

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.

Check out David Weininger’s high praise of Soul House!

Read the review here:

The local recordings that helped us through 2020

Pull Quote:

As the months dragged on and our state of isolation never truly lifted, the piece I came back to the most was Robert Honstein's “Soul House,” commissioned and recorded by Hub New Music (New Amsterdam). Honstein's piece is a portrait of the house in New Jersey where he grew up, sketched with deep beauty and just enough grit to make it seem honest. Most of us have spent this year confined to our homes, which has meant a particular, persistent kind of gloom — for me and, I suspect, many others. During those moments, “Soul House” was there to remind me that there can be magic even in an overfamiliar dwelling, if you make the effort to look for it. My year would have been a lot tougher without it.

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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.

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

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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

New Music USA announces:

CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE VIBRAPHONE: PAMELA Z AND ROBERT HONSTEIN

The year 2021 brings the unique opportunity to celebrate the first centennial of the vibraphone, an instrument developed in Indianapolis, IN by the Leedy Manufacturing Company, that has become a globally-recognized fixture in a wide variety of genres spanning from classical, pop, jazz and everything in between. To mark this occasion, a team of performers, composers, educators and music administrators have founded Vibraphone Project Inc. (VPI), whose first major endeavor is to facilitate a 3-day festival in Indianapolis, the instrument’s birthplace, to promote, support, educate and nurture artists and audiences associated with the vibraphone. One of the many ways we will accomplish this is by commissioning new works of integrity and substance for the instrument by prominent American contemporary composers, Pamela Z and Robert Honstein.

The festival (TBA) will be held in Indianapolis, IN of May 2021. For more information visit the New Music USA grant page: https://www.newmusicusa.org/projects/contributions-to-the-vibraphone-pamela-z-and-robert-honstein/