Jeffrey Roberts

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Arts - East Asian Studies Dept

Contact

Assistant Professor, Faculty of Arts - East Asian Studies Dept
Email
jsr1@ualberta.ca
Phone
(780) 492-1565
Address
3-22 Pembina Hall
8921 - 116 St NW
Edmonton AB
T6G 2H8

Overview

Area of Study / Keywords

Music Composition Music Performance East Asia China Interculturalism


About

Jeff Roberts is a composer, improviser and researcher working in interdisciplinary areas of intercultural music making, electroacoustic music and multi-media performance. His music explores relationships between different music styles and cultures. His work has been recognized with awards from the Fulbright Foundation, Franz Göethe Stiftung, Korea Foundation and Asian Cultural Council among others. His compositions have received multiple awards and have been commissioned and performed worldwide. His study of guqin with guqin master Li Xiangting (李祥霆) has led to an active international performing career on guqin. He co-founded and is co-artistic director of PAN Project Ensemble, an ensemble of master musicians from Chinese, Korean and Japanese traditions, focused on creating modern music that is rooted in the intercultural history of East Asia. His work with interactive soundscape installation was recognized with a Jack Straw New Media Award. Recordings of his compositions have been released on the Telos (Germany) and Takuai (Italy) labels and his ensemble PAN Project released their first album on the Neuma Record label in the summer of 2021. A solo album of his guqin compositions and improvisations (supported by a Jack Straw Artist Support Award) will be released in 2022.


Research

His research focuses on technology and cultural identity in intercultural electro-acoustic music, guqin improvisation and intercultural plucked string instrument techniques. He holds a PhD in Music Composition and Theory from Brandeis University, M.A. in Composition from Boston University and B.M in Improvisation from New England Conservatory of Music. He studied with German composer Hans Zender at the Hochschule für Musik Frankfurt am Main and was a Senior Scholar at the Beijing Central Conservatory of Music, studying guqin performance with master Li Xiangting.



Teaching

EASIA224 Intercultralism in East Asian Music

EASIA234 The Chinese Literati

EASIA428 Landscape and Soundscape in East Asian Cultures

Courses

EASIA 224 - Interculturalism and East Asian Music

Survey of the major music traditions of China, Japan, and Korea through an exploration of Silk Road influences on Chinese music and Chinese musical influences on Japanese and Korean Music.


EASIA 234 - The Chinese Literati

Literary and historical perspectives on the elite of pre-modern China. Prerequisite: EASIA 101 or consent of Department.


EASIA 429 - Landscape and Soundscape in East Asian Culture

The interdisciplinary study of East Asian traditional landscape painting and music through combined research and creative practices. Prerequisites; EASIA 101 and 3 units in EASIA at a senior level, or consent of Department.


Browse more courses taught by Jeffrey Roberts

Publications

Pan Project

Author(s): Pan Project Ensemble (Jeffrey Roberts & Gamin Kang, co-artistic directors)
Publication Date: 6/1/2021
Publication: Neuma Records
Volume: Neuma 149
External Link: https://neumarecords.org/ols/products/pan-project

Intercultural Improvisation and Composition Practices on Guqin

Author(s): Jeffrey Roberts
Publication Date: 2021
Publication: Zhijiang University Press
Volume: Chinese And Chinese Influences: Composers in the 21st Century

Implications of Electroacoustic Composition in an Intercultural Context: NEGOTIATING CULTURAL MEANINGS AND USES OF TIMBRE

Author(s): Jeffrey Roberts
Publication Date: 2014
Publication: eContact, Canadian Electroacoustic Community
Volume: 17
Issue: 3
External Link: https://econtact.ca/17_3/roberts_identity.html

Shadows of Tang, for Orchestra

Author(s): Jeffrey Roberts
Publication Date: 2012
Publication: Telos Music
Volume: CD TLS 1666
Issue: Philharmonisches Orchester des Staatstheaters Cottbus
External Link: https://www.amazon.de/Impulse-24-Urauff%C3%BChrungen-Evan-Christ/dp/B009NMYXRM

Guitar Atlas: China

Author(s): Jeffrey Roberts
Publication Date: 2009
Publication: Alfred Press
External Link: https://www.amazon.ca/Guitar-Atlas-China-passport-world/dp/0739062794

Skimming, for Chamber Ensemble

Author(s): Jeffrey Roberts
Publication Date: 2004
Publication: Taukay Edizioni Musicali, Italy
Volume: Tukay 126
Issue: Ensemble Microkosmos
External Link: https://www.taukay.it/data2/index.php?option=com_spsimpleportfolio&view=item&id=47:taukay126&lang=en