Richard Robbins - Details

Biography

Richard Robbins was born in Rockland, Massachussets and began his musical studies at the piano when he was 5 years old. A graduate of The New England Conservatory of Music, he received a Frank Huntington Beebe Fellowship, and continued his studies in Vienna, Austria.

Robbins, long known for his association with Merchant Ivory Productions, has composed original soundtracks and created scores using period music for over a dozen Merchant Ivory feature films before The Golden Bowl, including The Europeans, Quartet, Heat And Dust, A Soldier's Daughter Never Cries, A Room With A View (which won the British Film Institute Anthony Asquith Award for Best Film Score, and was also nominated for a British Academy Award), and Maurice (which received Best Film Score at the 1987 Venice Film Festival). His scores for Howards End and Remains ofthe Day were both nominated for Academy Awards.

Robbins has directed two documentary films on musical subjects for Merchant Ivory Productions: Sweet Sounds (which was selected for both the New York and London Film Festivals) and Street Musicians of Bombay (which was commissioned by Channel Four Television, London). Other film scores include Sweet Lorraine, My Little Girl, Bail Jumper, for PBS/American Playhouse, Love and Sorrows, and Nicole Garcia's Place Vendome, Sandy Zeig's The Girl