Robert Ashley (born March 28, 1930) is a contemporary composer, best known for his operas and other theatrical works. His operas are far from traditional as they usually incorporate electronics and are written and produced for television. He explains that English is a language where the consonants count, not the vowels, unlike many European languages, and so the text in operas written in English should be delivered much faster.

Ashley is the founder of the ONCE group and festival, as well as a past member of the Sonic Arts Union along with David Behrman, Alvin Lucier, and Gordon Mumma.

His operas include:

• In Sara Mencken, Christ and Beethoveen there were men and women (text from the book of the same name by John Barton Wolgamot )
• Perfect Lives
• El Aficionado
• Atalanta (Acts of God)
• Improvement
• Dust

External links

• Lovely Music Artist: Robert Ashley
• Robert Ashley Interview with Theresa Stern Nov. 1997
• The University of Akron Bierce Library Composer Profile: Robert Ashley
• Robert Ashley in conversation with Thomas Moore
• A Conversation with Robert Ashley by Frank J. Oteri, March 13, 2001

Listening

• UbuWeb: Robert Ashley featuring Interiors with Flash, and In Sara Mencken, Christ and Beethoveen there were men and women (1972)
• NewMusicJukeBox.org: Robert Ashley's When Famous Last Words Fail You Excerpt