About

Currently a regular contributor to The Flutist Quarterly, his recent series, The Lost Art of Listening, explores the evolving role of auditory perception in contemporary music. His other ongoing series is co-written with Carol Lynn Ward-Bamford, the Curator of Musical Instruments at the Library of Congress, and focuses on the Dayton C. Miller Flute Collection.

Renowned for his diverse musical achievements and commitment to the arts, he is the only composer to ever receive the Governor’s Arts Award from the State of Connecticut. His compositional path was shaped by studies with Philip Glass, John Cage, and James DeMars, alongside instrumental mentorship under Jimmy Heath. This foundation led to commissions and performances at venues such as The Kennedy Center and The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), as well as CBGBs in NYC and The Troubadour in LA. His work has been recognized with a BMI Award for Excellence in Music Composition and grants from the Arizona Composers Forum and the Arizona Council for the Arts.

Beyond the concert hall, Robert’s music has been featured on NPR, Turner Networks, Televisión Española in Spain, and Ríkisútvarpið (RÚV) in Iceland, and has been commissioned by choreographers, filmmakers, and dance companies, including Pilobolus, the Atlanta Ballet, and Desert Dance Theatre.

Deeply committed to the transformative power of the arts, Robert served as Secretary of the Newtown Cultural Arts Commission and co-founded the Newtown Arts Festival, serving as its entertainment director for five years. As Director of “Healing Newtown Through The Power of the Arts,” he served as liaison to both the United Way and the National Endowment for the Arts, facilitating world-class performances and securing significant funding for art therapy and healing programs.

As a performer, Robert has showcased his talents as a flutist and saxophonist in the Broadway Benefit Concerts for Newtown, alongside Danny Zolli, Jeri Sager, Gary Mauer, and Mark McVey.

Robert’s recent work involves developing new methodologies for musical interaction and improvisation, including Hljóðrúnaþing, a system of musical composition based on Norse mythology, and a system that adapts the structural logic of baseball to frameworks for musical education and improvisation.

Before retiring to focus on his creative endeavors, his career took him from Information Security Audit Manager to Regulatory Compliance Officer and Global Information Security Executive at IBM, then later to a worldwide role as Director of Global Information Risk Management at Cognizant.

Robert is an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church, a maker of art assemblages, and a devoted servant to three demanding cats — who generally believe their needs should have been mentioned in the first paragraph. The longer narrative version lives in The Story of Me, on the Writing page.