Electroacoustic compositions, 1987-93, created at the University of Iowa Experimental Music Studios.

Born Robert Wesley Paredes in San Diego, California on February 10, 1948, Bob was the only child of Fernando Napoleon Paredes and Laureta Gay Williams. In his youth he was educated at Brown Military Academy and in the San Diego public schools. While in junior high and high school, he studied clarinet with Daniel Magnusson, then principal clarinetist of the San Diego Symphony, as well as with Robert Osborne and Robert Marr. He also studied piano and beginning composition with W. Allan Oldfield. As a young adult he attended San Diego State and City Colleges, pursuing studies in music and sociology. While at San Diego State he studied composition privately with David Ward-Steinman and clarinet with Norman Rost. During the seventies, he undertook a variety of occupations in addition to freelance musical work, including roomservice waiter, bank employee, quick-print and copy service operative and office supply salesperson.

After performing as clarinetist in Harry Partch’s The Bewitched with the Harry Partch Ensemble at the 1980 Berlin Festival he began studying composition and compositional linguistics privately with the production's artistic director, composer Kenneth Gaburo. Study with Gaburo spanned two periods: first, from 1980 to 1983, and then again from 1987 to 1990. Also in 1980, through Gaburo, Paredes became acquainted with composer and essayist Benjamin Boretz. The two developed an influential friend/mentor relationship in the years that followed.

In between the two periods of study with Gaburo, from 1984 to 1986, Paredes lived in Australia, where he performed both as composer and clarinetist, active in the areas of contemporary chamber music, free improvisation, jazz, and middle European folk music, including klezmer, Balkan and Greek repertoire.

Paredes was also an artist-in-residence on several occasions during the 1980s and 90s, including at the Festival of Improvised Music in Perth, Australia (1986); the Unit One Experimental School of the University of Illinois (1988); the Festival de Inverno, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil (1992); and the Birmingham Art Association in Birmingham, Alabama (1993).

In 1987 he resumed his studies with Kenneth Gaburo at the University of Iowa, at which time he also studied art and technology and recording techniques with Lowell Cross, and intermedia with Hans Breder. There he received both M.A. and Ph.D degrees in music, and was subsequently employed as a Visiting Assistant Professor of composition and director of the Experimental Music Studios from 1991 to 1993. After a political and institutional upheaval in the music school, he left the University of Iowa to teach privately and perform. For a brief period he also repaired musical instruments. Later in his life, after a changing of the guard at the music school, he returned to the University of Iowa to serve as an adjunct professor of Jazz studies.

Though clarinet was his main instrument, Paredes was an accomplished woodwind player in general, with saxophone and flute also playing a large role. His performances have been captured in numerous recordings, and they attest to his prowess over a wide range of musical styles, from classical to jazz to gypsy. Some of his more notable performance affiliations were the Harry Partch Ensemble; the Big Jewish Band of San Diego (a klezmer music ensemble); the Schieve/Paredes Duo (performing their own compositions and music written especially for them); and the Leadbelly Legacy Band of Austin, Texas (free jazz/cajun/blues). He also collaborated in numerous other small ensembles that focused on a particular repertoire, such as Brazilian choros, free improvisation, the music of Ornette Coleman or original compositions by the performers themselves.