“I felt like no one really trusted me,” he recalled in a 2015 interview. “I used to go to orchestra rehearsals and play with them, and my colleagues were like, ‘Yeah, but you’re doing that weird contemporary music too, playing John Cage. ‘ And I would go to hardcore new music and they’d say, ‘Oh, you also play in orchestras, so you’re not really part of us.’ .
But inspired by his longtime partners, composer James Sellers and pianist Ivar Mikashov, Black devoted himself more and more to contemporary composition. At the time, few classical masters were working on new material. An early showcase was Mr. Sellers’ “For Love of the Double Bass,” a work for bass and piano that combines music and drama, in which Mr. Black seduced his instrument and dressed I bought a bass, danced with it, and ended up taking the double bass with me. bed.
As part of Bang on a Can All-Stars, Black helped popularize experimental music through international tours and critically acclaimed albums. He and guitarist Mark Stewart are the only remaining original members of the sextet, having played together for over 30 years.
“He was very kind, often playful, and both tender and intensely devoted to his composers and his on-stage colleagues,” Stewart wrote in an email. “His humility was real, because his wisdom came from listening.”
Mr. Black also pursued a solo career, building up a sizable new repertoire for his instrument and recording the entire bass music of Giacinto Schersi and Christian Wolff. A passionate educator, he taught at Hart School for his 29 years. In 2017 he founded the Robert Black Foundation to support contemporary music. He frequently commissioned works from young and up-and-coming composers and played the music live-streamed from his home as part of a monthly Friday series during the pandemic.
