Robert Taylor

Associate Professor, Director of Choral Activities

Robert Taylor is the Director of Choral Activities at the College of Charleston, Director of the Charleston Symphony Orchestra Chorus and CSO Chamber Singers, the Founding Music Director of the Bob Taylor Music Festival in Little Rock, Arkansas and Conductor of The Bob Taylor Festival Choir. Described by the Charleston Post and Courier as a conductor whose work is "expert," Taylor's choirs have been praised for their musicality, technical proficiency, and beautiful sound production.

Dr. Taylor has been at the College of Charleston since 1998, where he conducts the acclaimed 48-voice Concert Choir, the 18-voice Madrigal Singers, and teaches conducting, choral literature, music appreciation, and studio voice. Since coming to Charleston in 1998, Dr. Taylor's collegiate ensembles have performed throughout the southeast, Great Britain, and Ireland. They have performed at a number of festivals and conventions, including the 1999 American Choral Directors Association South Carolina Convention, the 2001 Pawley's Island Festival of Music and Art, and in numerous performances in the Piccolo Spoleto Festival, including an All-Stephen Paulus Concert with the renowned composer in attendance on the festival's Choral Artist Series. This season, they have been selected for feature performances in the 2003 American Guild of Organists Region IV Convention, and in the 2003 South Carolina Music Educators Convention. The Concert Choir has also performed with both the Charleston Symphony Orchestra and the Hilton Head Symphony Orchestra in several major works, including the Brahm's Ein Deutches Requiem, the Verdi Requiem, Handel's Messiah, Bizet's Carmen, Mascagni's Cavellaria Rusticana, and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.

Dr. Taylor's work with the Charleston Symphony Orchestra Chorus and CSO Chamber Singers has been greeted with critical acclaim. Since taking the position of CSO Chorus Director in 1999, Dr. Taylor has conducted these forces in performances of Lauridsen's Lux Aeterna, Samuel Barber's Prayers of Kierkegaard, Mozart's Solemn Vespers K. 339, and Handel's Foundling Hospital Anthem, Vaughan Williams's Flos Campi, and the Stephen Paulus Mass-the latter two being featured in a 2001 Piccolo Spoleto Fine Arts Festival performance that the Charleston Post and Courier described as "riveting." Dr. Taylor also annually conducts the popular Charleston Symphony Orchestra Holiday Pops concerts. Dr. Taylor has also prepared the CSO Chorus in a variety of masterworks for CSO Music Director David Stahl and Joseph Flummerfelt of the Westminster Choir College, including Requiem settings by Mozart, Brahms, Verdi and Berlioz, Orff's Carmina Burana, Handel's Messiah, Mahler's Symphony No. 2, the Poulenc Gloria, Symphony of Psalms by Igor Stravinsky, Brahm's Shicksalslied and Alto Rhapsody, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Bernstein's Chichester Psalms, and the Bach Mass in B-minor.

Dr. Taylor is also Music Director of the Bob Taylor Music Festival in Little Rock, Arkansas, and the festival's resident professional choral group, the 28-voice Bob Taylor Festival Choir. This festival, named after his deceased father, a pioneer in the development of high school choral music in Arkansas, features choral, solo vocal, classical string and Celtic music concerts as well as instruction and interest sessions in these music disciplines. The choir, which is in its third season, is comprised of singers stemming from 11 states. This ensemble has performed throughout the southwest, and was the featured ensemble in the 2002 Oklahoma Choral Directors Association Convention. Already regarded by many choral specialists as one of country's finest chamber choirs, The Bob Taylor Festival Choir and Dr. Taylor recently signed a recording contract with the Centaur Classical Recordings label. Their first recording on this label is scheduled for release in the summer of 2003.

Prior to coming to Charleston, Dr. Taylor served as Associate Director of Choral Activities at the University of Central Oklahoma, where his Concert Choir was named an Honor Choir by the 1997 Oklahoma Music Educators Association and featured at that organization's 1998 convention. From 1993-1995, Dr. Taylor served as Founding Music Director and Conductor of Chorus Civitas of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. This choral/orchestral ensemble's recording of Vaughan Williams's Epithalamion and An Oxford Elegy on the Centaur label was favorably reviewed by the American Record Guide and Fanfare magazine-Fanfare declaring the recording "a highly accomplished performance" and stating that "Taylor and his forces capture (Vaughan Williams's scores) ebb and flow perfectly." From 1993-1995, Dr. Taylor served as Music Director and Principle Conductor of the Baton Rouge Gilbert and Sullivan Society, where his conducting credits included the Mikado and Ruddigore. While at the University of Central Oklahoma, he conducted productions of Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti, and Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors and Help! Help! The Globolinks. He began his conducting career in the Texas public school system, as he directed the choral program at Cleveland High School in Cleveland, Texas from 1991-1993.

Dr. Taylor is an accomplished choral scholar, clinician, and lecturer, having been featured in these capacities in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Georgia, and South Carolina. His study of Ralph Vaughan Williams' cantatas An Oxford Elegy and Epithalamion is the first detailed, extended analysis of these works, and the Choral Journal has published his study of Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms. As a lecturer, Dr. Taylor recently presented "Bel-Canto Principles Applied Within a Choral Setting" at the 2000-2001 American Choral Directors Association South Carolina Convention, and led a special session on secondary-level choral rehearsal techniques at the 2001 South Carolina Music Educators Association Convention.

An experienced tenor soloist, Dr. Taylor has performed numerous operatic roles, including Belmonte in Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio, Kaspar in Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors, Mayor Upfold in Britten's Albert Herring, and Frederic and Ralph Rackstraw in Gilbert and Sullivan's Pirates of Penzance and H.M.S. Pinafore. He has appeared in concert and recital throughout the southwest and in South Carolina, recently being featured in the Charleston Symphony Orchestra's "Three Tenors Concert," in Bach's Christmas Oratorio and Coffee Cantata, the Mozart Requiem, Brahm's Liebeslieder Waltzes, and in recital on the College of Charleston Monday Night Concert Series.

Dr. Taylor holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Choral Conducting degree from Louisiana State University, a Master of Music in Vocal Performance degree from Sam Houston State University, and a Bachelor in Music Education degree from the University of Central Arkansas. He has studied conducting with Dr. Kenneth Fulton, the late Dr. B. R. Henson, John Erwin, and his late father, Bob Taylor. He currently serves as the South Carolina American Choral Directors Association Repertoire and Standards Chair for Community Choirs. He is married to violinist and Na Fidleiri director Mary Taylor. They have a daughter, Kiri Taylor, age seven.