Biography of the composer: --- Robin Frost was born in Washington, D.C. in 1930 into a wonderful musical environment. His father, the late Frank J. Frost, was a prominent Eastern businessman and an amateur violinist and music patron. Mr. Frost had a winter home in Ojai, California and in 1926 Mr. Frost along with Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge sponsored one of Ojai’s first musical events, the Ojai Valley Festival of Chamber Music. The three-day festival was held in the Foothills Hotel and drew performers and audience from both the east and west coasts. Robin’s earliest childhood memories are of chamber music drifting up from downstairs as he fell asleep. By the mid-1930s the Frosts had moved to Palo Alto. Robin began piano lessons at the age of six with Margaret Tilly, a distinguished English musician living in San Francisco. Robin relates that he actually had two teachers at the time. Since Miss Tilly resented teaching a rich man’s brats if they weren’t going to practice, another lady was engaged to sit with Robin, his brother, and his sister after school to see to it that they practiced correctly. This lady, Mrs. King, used to sell sheet music in department stores before she got swept into orbit around the Frost Family. She had to make the popular songs of the ’20s and ’30s sound beautiful and she showed Robin how to emphasize the 5th finger of the right hand to bring out the melody when this sat atop full chords. She was an ace sight reader, of course, and a fine musician. She taught Robin to write neatly and how to use the pedal tastefully; neither too much nor too little. Robin was lucky to have these two teachers early in his life and parents who sought them out. As a result, Robin developed an extraordinary talent in both the Classical and Popular music idioms. He got interested in popular music just by listening to the big band records (Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, etc.) brought home by his older sister, and by the Rhapsody In Blue, which he listened to endlessly. It was the 2nd recording that the Paul Whiteman band made with Gershwin himself at the piano. He was utterly fascinated by the sexy energy, the slimy clarinet portimenti, the pounding rhythms. Miss Tilly loathed Gershwin's music, especially the sly grace notes that give the Rhapsody, and so much of Gershwin's music, its character. The more she hated it, the more he loved it. Then his Concerto in F had a similar effect on him later. Gershwin and Debussy were his first loves. Then Fats Waller and his exultant preaching touched his heart and soul. A little later Bix Beiderbecke's intense, brooding cornet playing found its way into Robin’s inner brain, and Louis Armstrong had a similar effect. He soon began improvising little pieces of his own so theory and composition were emphasized by his teacher, although it was expected that he would be a concert pianist. He was taken regularly to hear the San Francisco Symphony conducted by the legendary Pierre Monteux. Robin’s first successes at writing for orchestra were for his high school and for the Stanford Football Band when he was fourteen. The piano lessons continued but his focus was on composition. He wrote the graduation march for the band to play at his high school graduation. His musical education has been for the most part private instruction and tutoring. He attended Darius Milhaud’s master classes at the Music Academy of the West in 1952. Later his most important teacher was the film composer, the late Eric Zeisl. On the classical side, Robin has written many orchestral, chamber, and choral works, some of which have won prizes and many of which have been performed and well received. Before moving to Ojai from Santa Barbara in 1988, Robin divided his time between working in the commercial recording industry as an arranger and music director and teaching music and directing the choir at St. Anthony’s Seminary. Robin was caught up in “The Sting” Ragtime revival and was invited to perform at the Old Town Music Hall in El Segundo, California in 1979. He decided to write a couple of ragtime pieces to perform and they were enthusiastically received by the audience. He continued to compose and perform each year at the Old Town Music Hall and was also invited to perform at the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, Missouri, and the West Coast Ragtime Festival in Fresno, California. He always brought two or three new compositions to these performances, written especially for the occasion. Robin has never taken his “funny little piano pieces” very seriously as evidenced by their frivolous titles. “I write them just to ‘keep the spring clear’, as one lady once expressed it. One could also say ‘use it or lose it’.” When asked about the process by which they were created, he states, “Most of my piano pieces were, and are, written by the process of simply playing with little figures while keeping the overall structure in the back of my mind, be it classic rag, rondo, or Tin Pan Alley 32-bar song form. --- [Source: www.johnroachemusic.com/frost.html ]
Biography of the composer:
---
Robin Frost was born in Washington, D.C. in 1930 into a wonderful musical environment. His father, the late Frank J. Frost, was a prominent Eastern businessman and an amateur violinist and music patron. Mr. Frost had a winter home in Ojai, California and in 1926 Mr. Frost along with Mrs. Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge sponsored one of Ojai’s first musical events, the Ojai Valley Festival of Chamber Music. The three-day festival was held in the Foothills Hotel and drew performers and audience from both the east and west coasts. Robin’s earliest childhood memories are of chamber music drifting up from downstairs as he fell asleep.
By the mid-1930s the Frosts had moved to Palo Alto. Robin began piano lessons at the age of six with Margaret Tilly, a distinguished English musician living in San Francisco. Robin relates that he actually had two teachers at the time. Since Miss Tilly resented teaching a rich man’s brats if they weren’t going to practice, another lady was engaged to sit with Robin, his brother, and his sister after school to see to it that they practiced correctly. This lady, Mrs. King, used to sell sheet music in department stores before she got swept into orbit around the Frost Family. She had to make the popular songs of the ’20s and ’30s sound beautiful and she showed Robin how to emphasize the 5th finger of the right hand to bring out the melody when this sat atop full chords. She was an ace sight reader, of course, and a fine musician. She taught Robin to write neatly and how to use the pedal tastefully; neither too much nor too little. Robin was lucky to have these two teachers early in his life and parents who sought them out. As a result, Robin developed an extraordinary talent in both the Classical and Popular music idioms.
He got interested in popular music just by listening to the big band records (Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, etc.) brought home by his older sister, and by the Rhapsody In Blue, which he listened to endlessly. It was the 2nd recording that the Paul Whiteman band made with Gershwin himself at the piano. He was utterly fascinated by the sexy energy, the slimy clarinet portimenti, the pounding rhythms. Miss Tilly loathed Gershwin's music, especially the sly grace notes that give the Rhapsody, and so much of Gershwin's music, its character. The more she hated it, the more he loved it. Then his Concerto in F had a similar effect on him later. Gershwin and Debussy were his first loves. Then Fats Waller and his exultant preaching touched his heart and soul. A little later Bix Beiderbecke's intense, brooding cornet playing found its way into Robin’s inner brain, and Louis Armstrong had a similar effect.
He soon began improvising little pieces of his own so theory and composition were emphasized by his teacher, although it was expected that he would be a concert pianist. He was taken regularly to hear the San Francisco Symphony conducted by the legendary Pierre Monteux.
Robin’s first successes at writing for orchestra were for his high school and for the Stanford Football Band when he was fourteen. The piano lessons continued but his focus was on composition. He wrote the graduation march for the band to play at his high school graduation. His musical education has been for the most part private instruction and tutoring. He attended Darius Milhaud’s master classes at the Music Academy of the West in 1952. Later his most important teacher was the film composer, the late Eric Zeisl.
On the classical side, Robin has written many orchestral, chamber, and choral works, some of which have won prizes and many of which have been performed and well received. Before moving to Ojai from Santa Barbara in 1988, Robin divided his time between working in the commercial recording industry as an arranger and music director and teaching music and directing the choir at St. Anthony’s Seminary.
Robin was caught up in “The Sting” Ragtime revival and was invited to perform at the Old Town Music Hall in El Segundo, California in 1979. He decided to write a couple of ragtime pieces to perform and they were enthusiastically received by the audience. He continued to compose and perform each year at the Old Town Music Hall and was also invited to perform at the Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival in Sedalia, Missouri, and the West Coast Ragtime Festival in Fresno, California. He always brought two or three new compositions to these performances, written especially for the occasion.
Robin has never taken his “funny little piano pieces” very seriously as evidenced by their frivolous titles. “I write them just to ‘keep the spring clear’, as one lady once expressed it. One could also say ‘use it or lose it’.” When asked about the process by which they were created, he states, “Most of my piano pieces were, and are, written by the process of simply playing with little figures while keeping the overall structure in the back of my mind, be it classic rag, rondo, or Tin Pan Alley 32-bar song form.
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[Source: www.johnroachemusic.com/frost.html ]
Nice one!
Wow