Contact
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Arts - East Asian Studies Dept
- jsr1@ualberta.ca
- Phone
- (780) 492-1565
- Address
-
3-22 Pembina Hall
8921 - 116 St NWEdmonton ABT6G 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 101 - Understanding East Asia
Important aspects of pre-modern and modern East Asia from a broad interdisciplinary perspective.
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 226 - Globalism and Transformation in Chinese Pop Music
Development of Western influenced popular music in Chinese Speaking East Asia from 1911 to the present day. Prerequisites: EASIA 101, or consent of the department. Taught in English. All readings in English.
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.
Featured Publications
Pan Project Ensemble (Jeffrey Roberts & Gamin Kang, co-artistic directors)
Neuma Records. 2021 June; Neuma 149
Intercultural Improvisation and Composition Practices on Guqin
Jeffrey Roberts
Zhijiang University Press. 2021 January; Chinese And Chinese Influences: Composers in the 21st Century
Jeffrey Roberts
eContact, Canadian Electroacoustic Community. 2014 January; 17 (3)
Jeffrey Roberts
Telos Music. 2012 January; CD TLS 1666 (Philharmonisches Orchester des Staatstheaters Cottbus)
Jeffrey Roberts
Alfred Press. 2009 January;
Jeffrey Roberts
Taukay Edizioni Musicali, Italy. 2004 January; Tukay 126 (Ensemble Microkosmos )