About

“One of the most memorable melodic composers today” *, composer and pianist Robert Gates grew up in a bohemian household surrounded by classical music, where his NASA rocket scientist and pianist and violinist father Dr. C.R. Gates, early head of the Voyager program, hosted chamber music Schubertiades with local orchestra musicians and writers, including Anais Nin and her circle. It was at these gatherings that he began performing Schubert duets with his dad.

He went on to study composing at Juilliard with the Pulitzer Prize-winning composer John Corigliano, who lauded him as a "master of the orchestra”, and where Pulitzer Prize-winning composer David Del Tredici called him a “superior talent.” He won multiple national young composer awards including from BMI, ASCAP and Juilliard, where a symphonic piece of his was chosen as the finale of the yearly student composers orchestra concert, and several faculty members commissioned work from him. His early student style was highly melodic and freely tonal, synthesizing classical composers like Schubert and Haydn with modern influences like Prokofiev, Bartok, Reich, world folk music and jazz, and after experimenting with other approaches, he came back to his own thematic, melody-driven music. With an output mostly focusing on melodic, often highly virtuosic, piano music until recently, he has been commissioned dozens of times, and has been performed by The Louisiana Philharmonic, The Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Mexico City Philharmonic Orchestra, The Budapest Symphony, The Lima Symphony Orchestra, The Juilliard Orchestra, The Debut Orchestra, The American Composers Orchestra, Piano Spheres, Fog Line Sessions, Ironwood New Music, Zoom!, Elyrica, etc… He was composer in residence for Zoom! and the Lincoln Center Director’s Lab. He also arranged a series of orchestral pieces for conductor Miguel Harth-Bedoya performed in Peru. He recently scored two independent feature films, and several short films with Oscar-nominated directors, and scored for various dance shows and theater productions, and recently composed for Sony Classical artist Hafez Nazeri. He has also arranged and orchestrated for Elton John, The Pixies, Spinal Tap, and other pop artists.

* - Le Monde de la musique, 2008

“A master of the orchestra” - John Corigliano, Oscar and Pulitzer Prize-winning composer

“A superior talent” - David Del Tredici, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer, Juilliard professor

“Gates… takes it to the extreme” - New Classical LA

“Thrilling” - New York at Night

“Amazing virtuosity” - Joseph Polisi, former Juilliard president