Robert Jay Fleisher (born 1953, New York City) is a composer, the author of Twenty Israeli Composers, and a contributor to Theresa Sauer's Notations 21. He is professor emeritus at Northern Illinois University, where he long served as Coordinator of the Music Theory and Composition area.
Fleisher received his baccalaureate degree in Music Theory and Composition at the University of Colorado. He earned his M.M. and D.M.A. Composition degrees at the University of Illinois, studying with Ben Johnston and Salvatore Martirano.
Fleisher's solo and chamber music has been called âÂÂeloquent,â âÂÂlovely and emotional," âÂÂingenious,â and praised for its âÂÂastoundingly attractive vertical sonorities.â A review of the CD Portraits (Capstone, 2008) featuring soprano Lynn Eustis, baritone Robert Best, and pianist Elvia Puccinelli, notes that his Five Songs from Carl Sandburg's "Prairie" for soprano and piano "are particularly apt in how they embody the spirit of the texts so convincingly, with an openness that never feels empty." Fleisher's electroacoustic works have been described as âÂÂfascinating,â âÂÂendearingly low-tech,â and possessing âÂÂa rich, tactile texture.âÂÂ
Some of his earlier works employing untraditional music notation have been exhibited in the United States, including Sylvia Smith's âÂÂScribing Soundâ exhibitions at the 1984 (Hartford, CT) and 1986 (Houston, TX) New Music America festivals, as well as in France and the Netherlands (2012) in connection with Theresa Sauer's book, Notations 21. Fleisher is represented in that collection (inspired by John Cage's 1965 Notations) by both a score sample and his invited essay, "Being of Sound (and Visual) Mind," which is highlighted in a New Music Connoisseur review.