Robert Spittal b. 1963. Cleveland, Ohio, USA.
Robert is an award-winning composer, conductor, flutist and saxophonist whose music has been described as "inventive" , "clever" and "full of musicality" by critics and musicians alike. He is Professor of Music at Gonzaga University (USA) where he teaches conducting, music theory and composition. Dr. Spittal led the Gonzaga Wind Ensemble for 27 years, and received a doctorate in wind conducting from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. His compositions have been commissioned and performed by some of the finest professional and academic musicians in North America, Europe, South America and Asia, including The Bay Brass, Borealis Wind Quintet, Atlanta Chamber Winds, Monmouth Winds, New England Conservatory, National Chamber Winds and North Texas Wind Symphony. His works have been performed in concert halls in New York, Bangkok, Vienna, Cologne, Milan, as well as Interlochen, the "Music for All" Honor Band of America, the WASBE international conference, the American Bandmasters Association conference, the National Flute Association conference, the Midwest Clinic, ASBDA, numerous All-State bands, and the CBDNA Western/Northwestern Conference. Three of his works are included in GIA's "Teaching Music" series, two of which were recorded by the North Texas Wind Symphony for the series. In 2020, Robert’s Diversions for Clarinet and Wind Ensemble received 1st Prize at the World Associations of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles Competition.
Robert's work combines sophisticated art music forms and techniques with an appealing musical vernacular that reaches across boundaries of genre and style. This concern for aesthetic sophistication and artistic integrity in combination with a satisfying and often intentionally enjoyable appeal to the listener's ear, has been developing since his adolescent years, 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.
Conducting
Robert Spittal is Professor of Music at Gonzaga University (USA), where he served as Director of Bands and led the Wind Ensemble and Chamber Winds from 1992-2018. He now leads the Creative Music Lab Ensemble and teaches conducting and music theory, and mentors students in the undergraduate conducting minor. Spittal received a Doctor of Musical Arts in conducting from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Eugene Corporon. Prior to CCM, he studied with Michael Haithcock (Baylor University) and Craig Kirchhoff (Ohio State University, 1985). He has also studied conducting with Frank Battisti and H. Robert Reynolds. Robert is the conductor of the professional brass ensemble Clarion, and he has led performances by the Spokane Symphony, Spokane British Brass Band, Mosaic Chamber Ensemble, and numerous collegiate and high school bands and orchestras in the US and Canada.