Robert Spittal

From Wind Repertory Project
Robert Spittal

Biography

The music of composer-conductor Robert Spittal (b. 1963, Cleveland, Ohio) has been described as "original," "inventive and witty," "intelligent" and "full of musicality." His music is published by Boosey & Hawkes, Maestro and Fox Music, and Shaba Road Music.

An interest in wind music developed first at Ohio State University, where he performed piccolo and flute in the ensembles of, and later studied conducting with, Craig Kirchhoff. He later studied with Michael Haithcock at Baylor University, and with Eugene Corporon at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 1995. He also studied conducting with H Robert Reynolds, Frank Battisti, and Gary Sousa.

Robert has composed for wind ensemble, orchestra, chorus, jazz ensemble, chamber ensembles, dance and theatre, and electronic media. His work frequently combines sophisticated art music forms and techniques with a non-patronizing sensitivity toward audience accessibility. Robert's works for wind band and chamber ensembles have won favor with professional, university and amateur ensembles in the U.S. and abroad, especially after four wind pieces were published by Boosey & Hawkes Co. in their prestigious "Windependence" series in 2005. His many other works (published by Maestro and Fox Music and Shaba Road Music) cover a range of musical forms, including saxophone quartet, wind quintet, brass quintet, brass choirs and string ensemble.

His music frequently combines 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 Robert's teens, when he was both a serious flute student in the Cleveland Institute of Music's Prep program, and a free-lance saxophonist in horn sections of jazz, r&b and other dance bands on the city's west side.

Today, Robert is a professor of music at Gonzaga University in Spokane, WA, where he began and led the University Wind Symphony and Chamber Winds program until 2019. He served as Chair of the Department of Music from 2000-2007.


Works for Winds

Adaptable Music


All Wind Works


Resources

  • King, Michael T. "Celestial Song." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 11, Compiled and edited by Richard Miles, 145-151. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2018.
  • Miles, Richard B., and Larry Blocher. 2007. Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 6 Volume 6. Chicago: GIA, pp. 403.
  • Quaale, Kristopher J. "Scherzo: Cat and Mouse." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 9, edit. & comp. by Richard Miles, 637-642. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2013.
  • Robert Spittal, personal correspondence, June 2018
  • Robert Spittal website
  • Spittal, Robert. "Pacem – A Hymn for Peace." In Teaching Music through Performance in Band. Volume 6, edit. & comp. by Richard Miles, 403-407. Chicago: GIA Publications, 2007.