National Ballet of Canada Press

Enjoy the press images from the ballet Skyward by Alyssa Pires, which featured Conduit: II. Pulse. It ran for seven performances from March 9-13, 2022.

Review of the ballet:

The company were at their best. The first ballet on the program the joy-filled sky-reaching Skyward, a world premiere created for the company by choreographic associate Alysa Pires.

The costumes by Dana Osborne had the suggestion of feathers for both men and women highlighting the feeling of flight in much of the choreography

Pires has a particularly fluid physical language that is yet full of variation to fit the different physical qualities and personalities of the dancers it was set on. Particularly glorious was the third movement danced tonight by the always luminous Heather Ogden and and astonishingly powerful Brendan Saye. What has happened to Saye during the pandemic? I have never seen in his dancing such authority, charisma and power. Combined with the luminous richness of Ogden’s presence the two of them in this particular choreography irresistibly made me thing of the leading characters Matthew and Diana in Deborah Harkness’ best selling trilogy of novels, and the television series it inspired, A Discovery of Witches: a coming together of two strong contrasting personalities meeting and establishing an unbreakable bond of partnership.

Skyward as a whole is full of a sense of joy and release reflecting, as Pires told me when I met her in the lobby, the feeling they had all had in the studio working on the company‘s very first new work after the lockdowns.

- Jennifer Parr, The Whole Note

 
New Sounds features Olmsted

New Sounds: #4441: Beethoven Immortal Pt. 1: Riffing on Beethoven

…Plus, there’s music from the duo of Nicholas DiEugenio, violin, and Mimi Solomon, piano, and their Unraveling Beethoven project commissioning works inspired by Beethoven's Violin Sonatas. From this project, hear a work by composer Robert Honstein, who is a founding member of the New York-based composer collective Sleeping Giant.

 
January Newsletter

“Beautiful music from Robert Honstein and some handsome cinematography by James Blann for the cleverly deployed reenactments do a lot to drive this narrative forward.”

— DAN MECCA, THE FILM STAGE

Happy New Year!

Hello and welcome to 2022. I'd love to share some updates on upcoming projects!

First off, thank you for the kind words about my score for The Real Charlie Chaplin. The documentary is now available on SHOWTIME (streaming and TV). The UK Theatrical Premiere is February 18th, 2022.

In other news, Ensemble Connect will premiere a new work for large chamber ensemble on May 2nd, 2022, in Carnegie Hall's Resnick Education Wing. Save the date!

In commission news, I'm excited to be finishing up a work for Vibraphone and String Quartet for The Vibraphone Project (Premiere TBD). And later this Spring I will be working on a project with Theo Bleckmann and the Mondrian Ensemble, with a premiere (fingers crossed, Covid) set for early June in Switzerland.

Thanks for tuning in,
Robert

 
The Great Marsh @ The Great Marsh

“The Great Marsh” for string quartet is featured on Greenbelt’s Cox Reservation Audio Trail. The trailhead sign has a QR Code to scan, so bring along your smartphone and headphones. Each of the four movements are meant to be listened in four specific points along the trail.

Greenbelt President Kate Bowditch and her staff were instrumental in designing the trial. The Cox Sound Trail is part of the Artists for the Great Marsh initiative.

Photo of the sound trail signage with QR Code

 
Film Score Premiere

Hi friends!

After making the rounds at film festivals across the globe, The Real Charlie Chaplin, a documentary featuring my original score, will premiere on Showtime Saturday, December 11th at 8:00pm ET/PT.

If you want to watch the film before December, it will be presented live at DOC NYC (November 12, 6:45pm at the Cinépolis Chelsea) and AFI FEST in Los Angeles (November 14, 12:15pm at the TCL Chinese Theatre). DOC NYC will also be streaming the film November 13-28, 2021. There will also be a limited theatrical release Cinema Village (New York) and Laemmle Monica (Los Angeles) starting Friday, November 19. The film will premiere in UK cinemas on March 4th, 2022.

I am very proud of the final score which features about 60 minutes of original music cues. The score was recorded in March and the film premiered at Telluride in September. On the music side of the project, I’d like to give a shout out to the musicians who recorded the score as well as those that helped behind the scenes:

Issy Gleicher, flute
Gleb Kanasevich, clarinet
Brad Balliett, bassoon
Karl Larson, piano
Matt Evans, percussion
David Degge, dulcimer

Clara Kim, violin
Lauren Cauley, violin
Hannah Levinson, viola
Mariel Roberts, cello
Pat Swoboda, bass

Bridget Samuels, music supervision
Jon Senge, copyist
David Stevens, project manager
Ryan Streber, Engineer, Oktaven Audio

Thanks for tuning in,
Robert