Robert Starer Biography

Robert Starer (born 1924 in Vienna – died 2001 in Kingston, New York) was an Austrian-born American composer and pianist.

Robert Starer began studying the piano at age 4 and continued his studies at the Vienna State Academy. After the 1938 plebiscite in which Austria voted for annexation by Nazi Germany, Starer left for Palestine and studied at the Jerusalem Conservatory. In World War II he served in the British Royal Air Force. And in 1947 he settled in the United States. He studied composition at the Juilliard School in New York, studied with Aaron Copland in 1948 and received a postgraduate degree from Juilliard in 1949. Starer became an American citizen in 1957.

Robert Starer taught at the Juilliard School, Brooklyn College and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York where he became a distinguished professor in 1986. He was married, had one child, Daniel, and resided in Woodstock, NY until his death. He lived with writer Gail Godwin for some thirty years; the two collaborated on several librettos.

Starer was prolific and composed in many genres. His music was characterized by chromaticism and driving rhythms. His vocal works, whether set to English or Hebrew texts, were particularly praised.

To learn more about life of Robert Starer, one may read his 1987 autobiography entitled "Continuo: a Life in Music."

He is buried in Artists Cemetery, Woodstock, Ulster County, New York