Robert Levy (HSUTrumpets 1967-1969)

Robert Levy is Professor of Music and Conductor of the  Lawrence Wind Ensemble and Symphonic Band at the Lawrence Conservatory in Appleton, Wisconsin.  He is one of this country’s more diverse musicians. He has thirty recordings on more than ten labels to his credit as soloist, chamber musician, with jazz groups, and as conductor. A frequent guest soloist and clinician, he has performed and conducted throughout the United States, Canada, Australia, China, Portugal, Haiti, and Jamaica. He has served as guest artist and on the faculty for many summer music festivals and camps, including Interlochen, Empire Brass Symposium at Tanglewood, Red Lodge (Montana), Tidewater Music Festival (Maryland), Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp (Michigan), Encore/Coda (Maine), and numerous others. In 1991 he was guest artist-in-residence at the Western Academy of Performing Arts in Australia, performing a solo recital and presenting trumpet master classes. In 2001 he performed and presented master classes at three music conservatories in Beijing and Xian in China.
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Mr. Levy has recorded and toured both as soloist and with marimbist Gordon Stout as the Wilder Duo, with the Iowa and Tidewater Brass Quintets, with the Boston Jazz Composers Alliance, and the Ken Schaphorst Big Band. He has recorded and performed with many of today’s finest brass artists, including David Jolley, Martin Hackleman, and Bill Scharnberg, horn; Chris Gekker, trumpet; Michael Powell, trombone; David Taylor and Thomas Everett, bass trombone; Sam Pilafian and Harvey Phillips, tuba; and Brian Bowman and Loren Marsteller, euphonium. His most recent CD’s, “Cross Over” on the Stellar Sound Productions label and “Blackberry Winter” (Mark Records), received high praise from Cadence magazine. Other recordings have been released on the Serenus, Trilogy, CRI, Accurate, Klavier, Golden Crest, and Northeastern
labels. He has also performed with the National Symphony Orchestra, and as soloist at Carnegie Recital Hall, the Museum of Modern Art, and the New York Brass Conference, and has twice been a featured guest soloist for the International Trumpet Guild’s Annual Conference. He has also served on the Board of Directors and Composition and Commissioning committees for the International Trumpet Guild.

As clinician for the Getzen Company since 1992, he has also been a guest artist/clinician for the American Brass Quintet Chamber Music Seminar at Juilliard, Empire Brass Quintet Symposium at Tanglewood, with the Canadian Brass, and Monumental Brass Quintet in Washington, D.C. His appearances in almost all fifty states have repeatedly received enthusiastic responses.

A leading proponent for contemporary music over the past thirty years, Levy has premiered more than one hundred thirty works as soloist, chamber musician, or conductor. Mr. Levy continues to “champion” the music of American Composer Alec Wilder, with whom he enjoyed a close association for many years. Since 1987 the “Robert Levy Brass Series” with Nichols Music Company (now Ensemble Music) has grown to include more than 40 works including compositions by Levy. As a composer, his works have been premiered and performed by some of the leading brass artists in the country: Chris Gekker, Sam Pilafian, and David Taylor among them. In 1997 Levy was awarded a fellowship to attend the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, which followed a “New Work” commissioning grant award from the Wisconsin Arts Board.

Locally he performs with the Lawrence Brass, Extempo, and Flex, and is co-leader of the 17 member Big Band Reunion, which recently produced its first CD following performances with Carl Fontana, Ed Shaughuessy, Clark Terry, Bill Watrous, Marlena Shaw, and Eddie Daniels. He holds membership in the International Trumpet Guild, and Wisconsin Alliance for Composers. Robert Levy holds degrees from the Ithaca College School of Music and University of North Texas.

Robert Levy was Henderson’s first full-time professor of trumpet, and it was also the first position he held.

On January 14, 1986, Levy returned to Henderson for a guest recital with Gordon Stout, marimba:

Wilder Duo

Front Row:  Robert Levy, Linda Bruner, Randy Keen
Back Row:  James Duffy, Lee Finch

YouTube – Persichetti: The Hollow Men for trumpet and piano (Robert Levy et al.)

Guest Recital, Spring, 1986

Paul Turok Concert Variations  
George Andrix Duo for Trumpet and Marimba  
David Snow Muted Suggestions  
Patricia Schultz Duo for Trumpet and Marimba  
Alec Wilder Suite I. from Suite for Trumpet and Marimba, II. from Suite for Solo Guitar, III. from Suite for Solo Trumpet, IV. from Suite for Solo Guitar, V. from Suite for Trumpet and Marimba
Gordon Stout Duo: Dance-Song  

February 18, 1968 Faculty Recital

Faculty Recitals

Fall 1967 Paul Hindemith Drei Stucke with Francis McBeth, string bass
Fall 1967 Walter Hartley Caprice November 9
Fall 1967 Carlos Chavez Soli  
Fall 1967 Alan Hohvaness Khaldis with James H. Smith (OBU faculty member), Randy Keen, and Ron Baker, trumpets
Spring 1968 Newell K. Brown Pastorale and Dance with Wendy Evanson, trombone; flute; clarinet; alto sax
Fall 1967 Eugene Bozza Frigariana  
Fall 1967 Walter Hartley Caprice November 28
Fall 1967 Ludwig Maurer Three Pieces brass quintet, with Randy Keen, trumpet
Fall 1967 Alec Wilder Brass Quintet No. 3 brass quintet, with Randy Keen, trumpet
Spring 1968 Roger Goeb Suite with flute, clarinet
Spring 1968 Walter Hartley Sonatina  
Spring 1968 Barney Childs Interbalances IV with Robert Bruner, narrator
Fall 1968 Newell K. Brown Three Movements for Brass Quintet brass quintet, with Randy Keen, trumpet
Fall 1968 James H. Smith Quintet  
Fall 1968 Barney Childs October Music with Fred Heinemann, trumpet
Fall 1968 Harold Budd February 14  
Fall 1968 Johann Nepomuk Hummel Concerto in E-flat major  
Fall 1968 Marcel Mihalovici Scherzo-Valse  
Fall 1968 Marcel Mihalovici Meditation  
Fall 1968 Paul Hindemith Sonate  
Fall 1968 Domenico Gabrieli Sonata No. 5  
Fall 1968 Johannes Paul Thilman Concertino, Op. 66  
Fall 1968 Vincent Persichetti Hollow Men, The  
Fall 1968 Stefan Wolpe Solo Piece for Trumpet  
Fall 1968 Paul Hindemith Tafelmusik  
Fall 1968 Frank Lynn Paine Brass Quintet brass quintet, with Randy Keen, trumpet
Fall 1968 Henry Purcell Allegro and Air from “King Arthur” brass quintet, with Randy Keen, trumpet
Fall 1968 Tilman Susato Three Dances brass quintet, with Randy Keen, trumpet
Fall 1968 anonymous   Sixteenth-Century Carmina brass quintet, with Randy Keen, trumpet
Fall 1968 Newell K.  Brown Three Movements for Brass Quintet brass quintet, with Randy Keen, trumpet
Spring 1969 Daniel Speer Two Sonatas  
Spring 1969 Donald Erb Improvisations  
Spring 1969 Henry Purcell Trumpet Tune and Air brass quartet, with Randy Keen
Spring 1969 William Mayer Country Fair brass quartet, with Randy Keen
Spring 1969 Newell K. Brown Suite for Two Trumpets with Randy Keen, trumpet
Spring 1969 Newell K. Brown Three Movements for Brass Quintet brass quintet with Randy Keen, trumpet

Other Programs

Fall 1967 Solo with orchestra Charles Ives Unanswered Question, The with Henderson State Symphony Orchestra
Fall 1967 Solo with band Alec Wilder Concerto with Henderson State Symphonic Band
Spring 1968 Junior Collier Jones Four Movements for Five Brass brass quintet, with Randy Keen, trumpet
Spring 1969 Solo with orchestra Newell K. Brown Music for Trumpet and Orchestra with Henderson State Symphony Orchestra; dedicated to Levy