Composer, Lyricist, Musician
Robert Schoen grew up in Wantagh, Long Island. Early in life, his mother, a pianist and musical theater enthusiast, introduced him to the music of Broadway and Tin Pan Alley greats such as Cole Porter, Rodgers and Hart, Irving Berlin and George Gershwin.
During high school, Schoen played guitar in his own rock bands as well as in the high school jazz band under the direction of educator, writer and jazz musician Rollan Masciarelli. The recordings of pianist Bill Evans and guitarists Barney Kessel and Wes Montgomery opened Schoen's ears to jazz, and he later fell in love with the music of Antonio Carlos Jobim and the saxophone sounds of Stan Getz.
Schoen is a graduate of Boston University, Laney College, the University of California, Berkeley, and California State University at Hayward, where he majored in music composition.
While a student at UC Berkeley, he played piano in one of the Jazz Ensemble program's combos. Program director Dr. David Tucker listened to a few of Schoen's early compositions and encouraged him to start work on a musical theater piece. This evolved into Schoen's first show, a musical comedy, later produced at Laney College in Oakland. As a participant in the San Francisco School of Dramatic Arts, Schoen co-wrote (with composer Julie Shearer) a second show, presented at Fort Mason in San Francisco.
Schoen, a piano and keyboard player, began playing the tenor saxophone when he found there were too many piano players competing to play at the local jam sessions. He recently returned to playing piano, but still loves the saxophone. His favorite sax players include Getz, Scott Hamilton, and Dexter Gordon.
Schoen attended the Peabody Preparatory School in Baltimore, and later studied piano with California composer Aaron Blumenfeld and saxophone with Hal Stein, Larry Schneider, Bill Aron (the JazzSchool in Berkeley) and Dann Zinn. His composition and music theory teachers include Giancarlo Aquilanti, Jeffrey Miller, and Frank LaRocca.
Schoen's compositions for cello, clarinet, saxophone, piano, trombone, and mixed ensemble have been performed in recital. Infinite Courage, composed for symphonic band and dedicated to the crew of the space shuttle Columbia, has been performed by the concert bands of Stanford University, William Paterson Univesity, Cal State Haward, and the 399th US Army Band. His pieces for clarinet, trombone, and mixed ensemble are published by Gold Branch Music, Inc. Schoen has received awards from ASCAP, Cal State Hayward, and the Ann & Gordon Getty Foundation.
Click here to visit Robert Schoen's Concert Works page.
The Bob Schoen Songbook - A Song is Like a Child, produced by pianist Mark Little, is a compilation CD of 11 of Schoen's compositions performed by talented musicians and singers including Little, tenor saxophonist Larry Schneider, bassist Jon Evans, drummer Bryan Bowman, and vocalists Daline Jones and Joan Shaff. A two-CD collection of his songs is currently in production.
His second CD (a single) features a very special song, The Lights of Hanukkah. It is truly a Hanukkah song for the holiday season, performed by vocalist Stephen Saxon. The Lights of Hanukkah appears on "The Twelve Days of Christmas," a holiday CD recording by the Dallas men's chorus, The Vocal Majority.
Bob Schoen's CDs are available through Amazon.com: