High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Robert Black (28 April 1950 14 November 1993) was an American conductor, pianist and composer. He was most particularly associated with the promotion, performance and recording of contemporary classical music, but he also played and conducted the standard repertoire. Robert Black was born in Dallas, Texas in 1950. The pianist William Black (1952-2003) was his brother. He started his piano studies at age 5, presenting his first public recital at 13. He studied at Oberlin College and the Juilliard School in New York, where his teachers included Beveridge Webster, Roger Sessions and David Diamond. He taught at Oberlin, Stanford University, Long Island University (C. W. Post Campus), Princeton University and the University of California, Santa Barbara. His early recording of works by Franz Liszt was nominated by the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest for a Grand Prix du Disque.