Robert Bernat

Robert Bernat (July 3, 1931 – December 3, 1994) was an American composer and the founder, artistic director, and conductorof the River City Brass Band in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His musical influences included his mentor, Aaron Copland, as well as other American composers including Leonard Bernstein, George Gershwin, and John Philip Sousa. Biography Bernat was born in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, on July 3, 1931, to Pearl Willie and Andrew Bernat. His mother died when he was four. That same year, his maternal grandfather taught him to play the country fiddle. By the time he was a teenager, he was playing the clarinet and saxophone professionally in jazz bands. At 15, he composed his first sonata for violin and piano. He obtained his undergraduate degree from Carnegie Mellon University (then, Carnegie Tech) in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and his Master of Fine Arts in Composition from Brandeis University. In 1960, Bernat received a Crofts fellowship to attend the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s Tanglewood Music Center in the Berkshires where he studied with composer Aaron Copland. He held academic posts at Bethany College, Brandeis University, Ohio State University and the University of Pit