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ABOUT

Robert Wallace is a classically trained pianist and composer, now a film scorer in Los Angeles, CA, working under the multi award-winning composer Michael Abels. He has contributed extensively to projects like Allen v. Farrow (episode 4 of which was nominated for an Emmy), Nightbooks, Beauty, Chevalier, Landscape with Invisible Hand, The Burial and Breaking. Robert was the lead composer on international-award winning animation Don't Drop The Goose. He has won multiple national and international awards for piano performance and composition, including performing twice at Carnegie Hall and at Vienna’s Ehrbar Hall. In October 2022, he was a winners finalist for the Sabam Award for Best Original Composition by a Young Composer, where the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra performed his original composition Nosferatu at Sea at the World Soundtrack Awards in Ghent.

 

He started his classical and theory training in Washington DC at age five under Dr. Valerica Maican, a double doctorate in composition and piano and student of the legendary Nadia Boulanger. When his family moved to South Africa in 2005, he added a focus on jazz piano (while continuing working with Dr. Maican via Skype), studying with pianists like Jason Reolan and Bokani Macha. After completing high school in South Africa, he attended Berklee College of Music, graduating magna cum laude in 2020, with concentrations in Film Scoring, Conducting, and Jazz Composition (and a commencement performance with John Legend). 

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Robert is currently working on an upcoming series for Netflix.

Awards

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  • Additional Music for Breaking, Sundance Award Winning Film for U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award: Ensemble Cast

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  • Assistant Composer for Allen V. Farrow, Emmy nominated Documentary Series on H.B.O. â€‹

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  • American College of Musicians, National Guild of Piano Teachers 2014 Piano Composition Competition, Irl Allison Sr. Award 

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  • 2014 Grand Prix winner of Music-Fest Rising Talents Competition 

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  • Viola Hartman Piano Performance Competition, Catholic University, 2003 

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  • Washington Music Teachers Association Piano Performance Competition, 2002 

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  • Washington Conservatory of Music, Honours Recital Audition, 2001 

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  • American College of Musicians, National Piano-Playing Auditions, 2001 

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Performance 

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  • Carnegie Hall (New York) performance on June 6, 2016, as Winner of Second Degree Diploma, Debut International Piano Competition 

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  • World Composers Recital, Golden Key Music Festival at Vienna, Ehrbar Hall on August 3, 2016, to play my own compositions as a winner of the 2016 Golden Key International and National Piano Composition Competitions 

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  • Solo piano recital, Casa Labia, Cape Town, South Africa, February 1, 2015: works by Chopin, Liszt, Bach, Debussy, Copland, and my own compositions 

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  • Carnegie Hall (New York) recital, March 16, 2014, as 2014 Grand Prix winner of US Music-Fest Rising Talents Competition 

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  • Classical recital, Antarctica, 2012, for audience including former US Vice President Al Gore, Iceland President Olaf Grimsson, Sir Richard Branson and Jason Mraz 

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  • Jazz recital, Washington DC, St. Patricks Episcopal Church, July 23, 2010, for audience including President and Mrs. Barack Obama 

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  • Berklee BPC show for Berklee’s Women Showcase, performing with Charley Tiernan in 2019

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  • Radio City in Valencia, Spain, in May 2018, as part of Sarah Khatami’s band

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  • The Lilypad in Cambridge, Boston, in July 2018, with my own musicians playing all original pieces arranged for organ, drums, bass, trumpet and voice

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