Robert Bates

Robert Bates is Associate Professor of Organ at the Moores School of Music, the University of Houston.  Previously he was University Organist at Stanford University, where he received a Ph.D. in musicology.  He has won prizes for organ performance in Fort Wayne, San Antonio, Detroit and Bruges, and has also been awarded the Prix d'Excellence and the Prix de Virtuosité from the class of Marie-Claire Alain.  Other teachers of performance and improvisation include Robert Anderson, Ray Ferguson and Daniel Roth.  Dr. Bates is a specialist in early Spanish and French organ music, the history of theory, and early tuning systems; his articles have appeared in the Organ Yearbook, Music and Letters, Histoire des Sciences  and Performance Practice Review.  He is also a published composer.

Dr. Bates has performed solo recitals at Stanford University, Cornell University, the University of Notre Dame, Northwestern University, Westminster Choir College, the New England Conservatory of Music, the Eastman School of Music, Duke University, the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, Vassar College, Princeton Seminary, Arizona State University and the University of Michigan, where he participated in a seminar on Early French Organ Music as both a recitalist and lecturer.  Dr. Bates was invited to give a paper and perform at the Colloque International Dom Bedos in Bordeaux, France in May 2004, where he also presented the final paper of the conference on a previously unknown 18th-century French music manuscript.    Also in 2004 he judged the semi-final round of the NYACOP and final round of the Miami International Competitions and led workshops at the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists in Los Angeles and at the National Pedagogy Conference of the American Guild of Organists in Denton, Texas.   Recently he was invited to perform at the Oaxaca Organ and Early Music Festival in Oaxaca, Mexico and the Westfield Center’s symposium on the dual temperament organ by Martin Pasi in the Cathedral of St. Cecilia in Omaha, Nebraska.   He was also invited to perform a recital on the new organ by Paul Fritts at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana as part of it’s inaugural year of concerts and the first of a special series of concerts by American organists on the Fisk organ in Minato Mirai Hall in Yokohama, Japan.  He is frequently invited to appear at conferences sponsored by organizations such as the American Guild of Organists, the Organ Historical Society, the American Organ Academy, the American Musicological Society, the Westfield Center and the American Institute of Organ Builders and was one of the featured performers at the AGO Seattle in 2000, where his performance was hailed as one of the most satisfying of the convention. 

He has recorded the complete organ works of Brahms (Pro Organo), Daquin (Loft Recordings) and Correa de Arauxo (to be released by Loft Recordings).  His three-CD set, "Viaticum" (Loft Recordings), contains eight of his own compositions.  A live performance for the National Convention of the American Guild of Organists in 2000 is now available on CD ("Robert Bates in recital at Lagerquist Hall," ReZound Recordings).  His music is published by Wayne Leupold Editions (ECS Publishing, Boston), and he is represented by Penny Lorenz Artist Management.

Press Quotes:

"There were no dull moments Friday night. He played with an impressive command of the instrument, searching out marvelous registrations and keeping his intellect focused. He found freedom in unusual places and musical grandeur everywhere....[The smaller works] revealed the kind of colorist Bates is, just as larger works revealed Bates' ability to make great musical architecture." -Seattle PI

"[Bates' composition] had the graphic richness of stained glass in its visual presentation. It was as exciting as any traditional organ piece, made even more tantalizing by short quotes from Bach's 'St. Anne' Fugue!" -The Diapason

"Bates' [new composition] was impressive to both eye and ear....Among its attractions was the pleasure of 'tracking' Bates' performance as it unfolded via the elaborate graphic representations provided to the audience." -Early Keyboard Studies Newsletter

"Bates has a beautifully refined technique, a profound understanding of rhythm and its subtleties, and a thorough sense of style." -The American Organist

"[Robert Bates is] one of the United States' most prominent organists. Rarely can an American organist of such high caliber be heard in Poland." -What, Where, When Warszawa

“I discovered the genius of an artist committed to beauty and yes, the “metaphysical” properties of this organ in our time…  This was a not-to-be-forgotten experience!”-Herbert Huestis in The Diapason (reflections on Robert Bates recital for the Westfield Seminar on the new dual-temperament organ by Martin Pasi in St Cecilia Cathedral, Omaha, Nebraska)

"...on ne pouvait souhaiter mieux. [...one could not wish for anything better.]" -Review by Pierre Hardouin, Connoissance de l'Orgue, no. 26

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