Applied Percussion
Robert
Fernandez
Lecturer,
Applied Percussion
Phone: 310-497-9244
Email: robertfernandez1@verizon.net
Percussionist Robert
Fernandez has been involved with contemporary music since the early
1970’s. He has been a featured artist in
the Monday Evening Concerts series in Los Angeles, the Ojai Festival (with
Lukas Foss), the L.A. Philharmonic New Music
Group ,the Independent Composers Association, Contemporary Concerts Inc.
in Chicago, and from 1976-1980, the CalArts
Contemporary Music Festival.
With fellow percussionists Arthur Jarvinen
and M.B. Gordy he co-founded the Antenna Repairmen in 1978. That group quickly established a reputation
for innovative and virtuosic performance of works that combined percussion,
poetry, and theater. The Repairmen
continue to perform in the
Fernandez has worked closely with many leading composers,
including Jacob Druckman (west coast premiere of
Animus II), Morton Feldman, Charles Wuorinen, Mel
Powell, Neville Mariner, Earle Brown, Pauline Oliveros,
William Kraft, Lou Harrison, John Adams, Frank Zappa, Harvey Sollberger, and Donald Erb. He has toured with the Erik Hawkins Dance
Company, the CalArts Twentieth Century Players, and
was invited to perform at the America Dance Festival in 1980. He was a member of Daniel Lentz and Group,
and from 1986 through 1989 was on the performance faculty of June In
Fernandez received his B.F.A. and M.F.A. degrees in
percussion from the California Institute of the Arts and did Doctoral work at the
Fernandez’s musical expertise is not limited to
contemporary art music. In the
commercial and recording fields, Fernandez has worked with many artists
including Dionne Warwick, Maureen McGovern and Frank Zappa and completed a
3-year world tour with Barry Manilow. He was a featured soloist on the soundtracks
of the Fox television series’ Alien
Nation and D.E.A., has performed
on numerous feature films including Nightmare
on Elm St.: Part II, Murder in Texas, Rapid Fire, Virtuosity, and Species, and has done commercials for
Lexus, Microsoft, DHL, and Dupont, among others.
He has taught at the Dick Grove School of Music; CalArts and USC And is currently on the faculty at
California State University Los Angeles, where he directs the percussion and
Afro-Latin percussion ensembles, teaches Latin percussion and assists with the
Afro-Latin music program. He has just
finished a book on Afro-Cuban Folkloric Music titled: The Afro-Cuban
Folkloric Musical Tradition- A Practical Guide for Percussionists and is a
founding member of the Cuarteto Experimental
Afro-Latino.