Robert Spittal b. 1963. Cleveland, Ohio, USA. Conductor and composer of music for band, orchestra, chamber ensembles, and musical theater. Composition Robert's music has been described as "inventive" , "clever" and "full of musicality" by critics and musicians. His works have been performed by some of the finest professional and academic musicians in North America, Europe, South America and Asia, including The Bay Brass, Borealis Wind Quintet, Atlanta Chamber Winds, and North Texas Wind Symphony, and has his works have been performed in concert halls in New York, Bangkok, Vienna, Cologne, Milan, as well as Interlochen, the "Music for All" Honor Band of America, the WASBE international conference, the American Bandmasters Association conference, the National Flute Association conference, the Midwest Clinic, ASBDA, numerous All-State bands, and the CBDNA Western/Northwestern Conference. Three of his works are included in GIA's "Teaching Music" series, two of which were recorded by the North Texas Wind Symphony for the series. Robert's work frequently combine sophisticated art music forms and techniques with a non-patronizing sensitivity toward audience accessibility. This duality - the musician's concern for aesthetic sophistication and artistic integrity, and for communicating more openly and directly to a listener - has been developing since his adolescent years as a serious flute student in the Cleveland Institute of Music's Prep progam, and a free-lance saxophonist in horn sections of jazz, r&b and other dance bands. Conducting Robert Spittal is Professor of Music at Gonzaga University (USA), where he conducts wind ensembles and teaches music theory. Spittal received a Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Eugene Corporon. Prior to CCM, he studied with Michael Haithcock (Baylor University, MM, 1990) and Craig Kirchhoff (BME, Ohio State University, 1985). He has also studied conducting with Frank Battisti and H. Robert Reynolds. Robert is the conductor of the professional brass ensemble Clarion, and he has led performances by the Spokane Symphony, Spokane British Brass Band, Mosaic Chamber Ensemble, and numerous collegiate and high school bands and orchestras in the US and Canada. |