Rob Sbar

Rob Sbar is an accomplished, award-winning composer and guitarist with a uniquely modern approach. Equally versed as a composer of contemporary chromatic and post-tonal forms, large-scale orchestral film scores, fully arranged jazz, rock and fusion, and a progressive rock/fusion guitar virtuoso, Rob fuses musical genre with an eye for innovation, experimentation and inventive approaches to multimedia, setting him apart as a truly original voice. Rob resides in New York City. He began performing professionally at age 16 doing session work, teaching and performing as part of the Alternative and Indie Rock scene. From this early age, he established himself locally among the top composers/arrangers and guitarists. Already a well-known artist, Rob attended the National Guitar Summer Workshop, New Milford, Connecticut, to diversify his skills. There, Rob participated in master classes with guitar icons Vinnie Moore, Stanley Jordan and Mick Goodrick. Rob started college at Temple University's Tyler School of Art, and completed a Bachelor of Music degree summa cum laude, studying jazz guitar and composition/arranging, as well as completing the Honors program at Temple University's Esther Boyer College of Music. His studies included jazz guitar with Tom Giacobetti and Ed Flanagan; jazz composition/arranging with Don Glanden, Ben Schacter and Larry McKenna; and classical composition with Matthew Greenbaum, Ph.D., Maurice Wright, D.M.A., Richard Brodhead, Ph.D., and Mark Rimple, D.M.A. Rob also conducted/arranged the School's Jazz Vocal Ensemble and was awarded membership in the Golden Key Honor Society. Rob has studied guitar privately with Shrapnel/Tone Center recording artist Greg Howe, Lasers Edge recording artist Scott McGill and Jazz icons Pat Martino (Blue Note) and Jimmy Bruno (Mel Bay). He earned a Masters of Arts degree in music composition at Rutgers University, studying with world renowned, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Charles Wuorinen. Rob was awarded a Teaching Assistantship in Music Composition and Theory in his first year. Rob pursued additional studies and master classes in composition with celebrated composers Aaron Jay Kernis, Harvey Sollberger, Jukka Tiensuu, David Felder, Mario Davidovsky, Charles Fussell, Austin Clarkson and George Russell; film score orchestration with Scott Smalley (Film Music Institute) and film scoring with Rick Baitz (The Manhattan Producer's Alliance), as well as performance studies with Wynton Marsalis, Max Roach, Billy Taylor, Bill Shindling, Magmus Andersson, Stu Hamm, Terry Bozzio, Frank Gambale, Larry Mitchell, Andy Timmons, Adrian Legg and Blues Saraceno. Rob's influences range from such guitar virtuosos as Allan Holdsworth, Steve Vai, Shawn Lane, John McLaughlin and Pat Martino, modern jazz composers John Coltrane, Herbie Hancock and Chick Corea, contemporary classical composers Stefan Wolpe, Elliot Carter, Charles Wuorinen, Edgar Varèse, Igor Stravinsky and John Zorn, film composers John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, Bernard Hermann, Ennio Morricone, Howard Shore, Philip Glass and Hans Zimmer and alternative rock icons Bob Mould (Hüsker Dü), The Replacements, Robert Smith (The Cure), The Smiths, The Church and Sonic Youth. Rob was the Music Director and conductor for the Mondfleck Orchestra, Music Director and Composer-In-Residence for the Trash Can Society Theater Company and composer for improv theater group, The Glass Metropolis Project. In September 2002, Rob released his highly praised debut CD, Wagon Wheels and Atom Bombs, with his band, The Rob Sbar Noesis (Aggregate Recordings), a virtuosic progressive rock/fusion instrumental trio that blends avant-garde and experimental forms of composition within a context of dynamic rock performances. The CD presents a unified, cumulative sensory and arts experience, incorporating the mediums of sound with written word and visual art concepts. Wagon Wheels and Atom Bombs received wide critical acclaim, including being placed on critic David Cisco's list of Top 10 CDs of 2002. Rob has been featured on numerous compilation CDs including Shawn Lane Remembered Volume II (Lion Music), Higher and Higher: A Tribute To The Moody Blues (Mellow Records), A Tribute to Carlos Santana: Guitars Dancing in the Light (Mellow Records). He has been interviewed and featured in many publications and websites worldwide, including Guitar Player, Guitar World, 20th Century Guitar, Guitar Chef (Italy), Guitar Mania (Canada) and many others. He was selected as a Top 5 Finalist in the 2006 North American Rock Guitar Competition, presented by Guitar Player magazine and Gibson guitars. The Rob Sbar Noesis was inducted as a new member into the 2007 Independent Artist Registry. Rob was selected to be a part of the June in Buffalo Festival for Emerging Composers held in Buffalo, New York, where renowned pianist Marilyn Nonken performed his solo piano piece, Aerial Surveying. He was commissioned to compose, conduct and perform the music for Sirens, a modern dance presentation in collaboration with celebrated choreographer Julia Ritter. Rob was also commissioned to write a modern composition for Renaissance lute titled A Mosaic of Cement and Barbed Wire, performed at the Sarah Lawrence Summer Guitar Institute. Rob's piece, Like Giants Through a Keyhole, trio for flute, cello and piano was performed as part of the Network for New Music's Cross-Currents in Jazz and New Music: The Schooling and School of Stefan Wolpe series. He was commissioned to compose a contemporary chamber piece as accompaniment to Hans Richter's 1927 Dadaist/Surrealist short film, Ghosts Before Breakfast, premiered as part of the Amphibian Concert Series at the Nicholas Roerich Museum in NYC. Rob's music has been featured throughout film and television. He composed scores for many feature films, television, web and ad campaigns, and featured on ABC, NBC, CBS MTV, VH1, Discovery, History Channel, PBS, among others. Rob was a featured speaker at Music for My Web Series Panel as part of the BlogWorld & New Media Expo held at the Javits Center in NYC in 2012. An accomplished teacher of composition, arranging, orchestration, music theory and guitar, Rob developed his own personal teaching concepts and methods for improving technique, chord/scale theory and counterpoint for various styles and genres of music. He has taught privately in music schools and at the college level. He is a Teaching Affiliate at Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus, and is a well-known freelance, live, studio and session guitarist, composer, arranger and producer. Rob is a proud endorsee of Seymour Duncan pickups, Morley pedals, Madison Amps, Curt Mangan strings and Neck Sock. Rob is an ASCAP affiliated composer and publisher (Rob Sbar Music) and a member of both the International Alliance Of Composer's and the Independent Film Project (IFP).