Date of Award

Spring 5-2007

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA)

Department

Music

Committee Chair

Dr. Gregory Fuller

Committee Chair Department

Music

Committee Member 2

Dr. Gary Adams

Committee Member 2 Department

Music

Committee Member 3

Dr. Joseph Brumbeloe

Committee Member 3 Department

Music

Committee Member 4

Dr. Jay Dean

Committee Member 4 Department

Music

Committee Member 5

Dr. Christopher Goertzen

Committee Member 5 Department

Music

Abstract

Forty-eight years ago, Ray Robinson entered the field o f higher education as a music professor, having no idea of the extraordinary path that lay ahead o f him. After spending four years in his first teaching appointment, Robinson entered academic administration as Dean and eventually Associate Director of the Peabody Conservatory. His success at Peabody propelled him into the most influential post o f his career: president of Westminster Choir College, a position he held for eighteen years. As the school’s longest-standing president other than the founder, John Finley Williamson, Robinson was able to make decisions that would ultimately impact the entire field of choral music. (1) His first task was to hire a new director of choral activities. That person was Joseph Flummerfelt. During Flummerfelt’s thirty-three years at Westminster, the college gained quite an international reputation through participation in the Spoleto Festival and collaborations with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. (2) Robinson was instrumental in adding Frauke Haasemann to the faculty, who influenced thousands of choral musicians in the United States and abroad through traditional programs of study as well as the Westminster summer session, also started by Robinson. (3) Due to philosophical differences among the faculty, Robinson wrote a textbook entitled The Choral Experience, which continues to be a valuable resource to choral musicians today. Robinson’s impact on choral music did not end with his retirement from Westminster; he returned to teaching so that students might continue to learn what he believes is the true “choral experience.”

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