User:John Broughton/Robert Page (choir director)

"choir director" or "choral director" or choral conductor or just conductor

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18th Annual Grammy Awards

Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance ‎

Bill McGlaughlin

Geeta Novotny

Peter Van de Graaff

Overview:

Robert Page (b. April 27, 1927, d. August 2016) was a professor of music at Carnegie Mellon University, and director of special projects and choral activities for the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, has joined the music department at Rowan University in Glassboro for this academic year.

Mr. Page conducted many major orchestras in the United States, including the Philadelphia Orchestra, made more than 40 recordings, and won two Grammy awards. This semester, he has been working with Rowan's Concert Choir.

High-level summary:

Early life and education
Robert Page was born in Abilene, Texas. His undergraduate education was at the Abilene Christian College, where he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1948. In 1951 he received a Master of Music degree from Indiana University. He was a graduate student at N.Y.U. from 1955 to 1959.

Directing and conducting
Page was director of choral activities at Eastern New Mexico University in Portales, New Mexico, from 1951 to 1955, and at Temple University in Philadelphia from 1956 to 1975. From 1964 to 1976 he was music director of the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia. He served as director of choruses for the Cleveland Orchestra from 1971 to 1989. He also was director of the Blossom Festival Chorus from 1973 to 1989 and assistant conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra. (1979–89).

Teaching
From 1975 to 1980 Page was head of the music dept. …

Robert Page didn't apply for any of the big jobs he's had in music. He didn't need to. His reputation preceded him.

Now 85, he's stepping down as Paul Mellon professor of music at Carnegie Mellon University at the end of the spring term, the conclusion to an important choral career on the concert stage and in academia. He was music director of the Mendelssohn Choir for more than a quarter-century, and prepared choruses for two other of the world's great orchestras, winning Grammys along the way, and conducted great orchestras such as the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra himself in concert. He came to Pittsburgh to be head of the school of music at Carnegie Mellon more than three decades ago, about halfway through his academic career

https://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-34458756.html

Best Wikipedia page start: http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Page-Robert.htm

https://www.themendelssohn.org/about/directory/robert-page-music-director-emeritus/:

Grammy Award-winning Robert Page is the Music Director Emeritus of The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh. In May 2013, he retired from his position as the Director of Choral Studies and Paul Mellon Professor of Music and Director of Choral Studies at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was named a University Professor, the highest distinction their faculty can achieve. He was named Pennsylvania’s Artist of the Year in 1998, and has been dubbed “a national treasure” by the American Record Review.

The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh achieved local, national and international acclaim under his direction. Works performed under his baton include Shostakovich’s Babi Yar; Britten’s War Requiem; Berlioz’s Requiem; Orff’s Carmina Burana; Mendelssohn’s Elijah; Haydn’s Creation; and Goodbye, My Fancy by Ned Rorem.

In great demand as a conductor of symphony orchestras, opera and music theater productions, Page has conducted many of the major orchestras of the United States, including Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Minnesota, Houston, Dallas, Louisiana, Milwaukee, Virginia and San Antonio, as well as the opera companies of Cleveland, Kansas City and Toledo. In Europe, he has conducted the Royal Philharmonic Opera Orchestra (London) and the Luxembourg RTL Orchestra at the Echternach Festival. In June, 1995, Page conducted the Czech State Philharmonic of Brno and The Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh in performances of the Beethoven Missa Solemnis in Brno, Prague, Czech Republic and Cracow, Poland and the Budapest Concert Orchestra (MAV) with The Mendelssohn Choir in a performance of the Verdi Requiem in Budapest, Hungary. In 1997, Page was invited to conduct the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra in performances of Carmina Burana in the Czech Republic and Vienna. Page has also conducted the Robert Page Singers, soloists and the Budapest Concert Orchestra in performances of Haydn’s Creation, in Budapest, at the Liszt Academy and in St. Stephan’s Cathedral in Vienna, Austria.

Active in the national choral orchestra scene, Page has served on the choral, festival and overview panels of the National Endowment for the Arts. He is a founding member of Chorus America, the service organization for independent choruses, and served as its president for three years.

https://www.pittsburghsymphony.org/pso_home/biographies/guest-artists/robert-page:

Since his arrival in 1975, Robert Page has been a major figure in the cultural life of Pittsburgh, bringing with him an international reputation as conductor and teacher.

Named Pennsylvania’s Artist of the Year by Governor Tom Ridge in 1998 and dubbed “a national treasure” by American Record Review, Page, dean of America’s choral conductors served as music director and conductor of the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh for 26 years, and now holds the title of music director emeritus.

From 1989 to 2006, Page held the title of director of special projects and choral activities with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. He retired his position as director of choral Studies and Paul Mellon University Professor of Music at Carnegie Mellon University in May 2013. Page served as assistant conductor and director of choruses of the Cleveland Orchestra (1971-1989). Prior to coming to Pittsburgh, Page served on the faculty of Temple University and was music director of the Mendelssohn Club of Philadelphia, preparing choruses for the Philadelphia Orchestra for 19 years. For more than 15 years, Page prepared the All-Star College Chorus for the Pittsburgh Symphony and Marvin Hamlisch. His choral arrangements of many of Hamlisch’s songs were featured in almost every concert

A veteran of summer stock performances, Page was one of the first musical staff members of the Brunswick (ME) Music Theatre, now the Maine State Theatre. He did the two-piano score for The Most Happy Fella, Frank Loesser’s famous Broadway musical. At Carnegie Mellon University, Page prepared and conducted numerous opera and musical theatre productions, which have included Nine, A Little Night Music, Candide, The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny, Merrily We Roll Along, Smile and A Chorus Line (both by Marvin Hamlisch). Operas he has conducted include Dialogues of the Carmelites, Street Scene, L’incoronazione de Poppea, Alcina, The Consul and L’italiana in Algeri as well as many Gilbert and Sullivan works.

With the Cleveland Orchestra, he conducted Naughty Marietta, H.M.S. Pinafore and Candide, and Girl Crazy with Chicago’s Grant Park Orchestra. He conducted Cleveland Opera productions of Carmen, Lucia Di Lammermoor,

Un Ballo in Maschero, Kiss Me Kate, L’elisir D’more and operatic scenes.

Page has conducted evenings of Lerner & Loewe, Rodgers & Hart & Hammerstein, Cole Porter and George Gershwin with many American orchestras.

Page’s work can be heard on more than 40 major recordings and has received Grammy awards for his recordings of Orffs’s Carmina Burana (with The Cleveland Orchestra) and Catulli Carmina (with the Philadelphia Orchestra). He has eight other Grammy nominations to his credit. He is recipient of the Grand Prix du Disc for Porgy and Bess and a Prix Mondial de Montreux for his world-premiere recording of the Shostakovich Symphony No. 13 “Babi Yar.” Naxos released La Muerte de Colon (The Death of Columbus), an opera by Leonardo Balada, conducted by Robert Page.

Page has served on the choral, festival and overview panels of the National Endowment for the Arts. He is a found member of Chorus America, the service organization for independent choruses, serving as president for three years. In 2001, he was honored as one of the first members of the American Choral Directors Association and in 2009 was made an honorary life member of the National Collegiate Choral Organization.

Robert Page has been catalyst in the commissioning of new works including Turbae (Alberto Ginastera), conducting the work in Philadelphia, New York, Cleveland and Buenos Aires); The Lovers (Samuel Barber); Ball (Richard Hundley);…Among The Voices (Bernard Rands); and, for the Mendelssohn Choir of Pittsburgh, An American Oratorio (Ned Rorem), Missa Mysteriorum and the critically acclaimed Requiem by Nancy Galbraith. He was the chorus master for the Chicago Lyric Opera/La Scala production of Paradise Lost (Kristof Penderecki) at the composer’s request. During his tenure with the Cleveland Orchestra he conducted the Cleveland first performances of Mass Of Life (Frederick Delius); Passion According To St. Luke (Penderecki), and a Rorem commissioned work. He presented Pittsburgh with the first performances of William Schuman’s Concerto on Old English Rounds for Viola, Women’s Voices and Orchestra, Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13, “Babi Yar,” Leonardo Balada’s Torquemada and Ned Rorem’s Goodbye, My Fancy, and the first professional performance of Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem.

Page earned a Bachelor of Arts degree (Abilene Christian College, magna cum laude), a Master of Music (Indiana University) and did additional graduate study at New York University. He is the recipient of honorary degrees from Beaver, Quincy, Drury and Seton Hill Colleges, and Rowan University, as well as from his alma mater. Page is married to Glynn Page, professor emerita of Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Drama. Alumni of her studio include Billy Porter, Tamara Tunie, Patrick Wilson and Blair Underwood. They have two daughters, Paula Page, who recently retired from her position as principal harp with the Houston Symphony, and Carolann Page, internationally known singer and actress, receiving international acclaim as Pat Nixon in the premier of Nixon in China (John Adams). He is the proud grandfather of Alexander Gemignani, a major Broadway star (Assassins, Les Miserables, Chicago, Violet).

While I was listening to the Shaw Chorale on tour in Goshen, Indiana, Margaret Hillis was rehearsing Shaw’s Collegiate Chorale in New York while he was away. In 1950, Margaret founded the New York Concert Choir. She also conducted the City Opera, the American Opera Society, and taught at Juilliard and Union Theological Seminary. Robert Page (Bob), a young tenor, was her protégé at Union and an original member of her Concert Choir.

http://vancegeorge.com/life-memoires/mentors-memoirs-choral-story-1938-2007/

CLEVELAND SINGERS - The Encyclopedia of Cleveland History

CLEVELAND SINGERS, the only fully professional chorus in the Cleveland area, was established in 1982 as the Robert Page Singers. Its founder and artistic director, Robert Page, was formerly the choral director of the CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA. Most of its original members were recruited from the chorus of CLEVELAND OPERA. It made its debut with an uncut performance of Handel's Messiah, which has since become an annual tradition. The chorus generally performs 4 subscription concerts a year and frequently tours in the Ohio area. Its size ranges from 28-38 voices, which perform both a cappella or accompanied, according to the dictates of the repertoire. After performing for 10 years at the Beck Ctr. for the Cultural Arts in LAKEWOOD, the chorus moved to Waetjen Auditorium at CLEVELAND STATE UNIVERSITY in 1992. It adopted its present name the following year. Its annual budget of approx. $100,000 has been partially funded by grants from the Ohio Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and other foundations.

Last Modified: 25 Jun 1997 11:43:13 AM

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