Robert Levy is one of America'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, and Portugal. 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), Northwest College (Wyoming), and numerous others. In 1991 he was guest artist-in-residence at the Western Academy of Performing Arts, performing a solo recital and presenting trumpet master classes.
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, and with the Boston Jazz Composers Alliance. 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 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, with the Canadian Brass, and Monumental Brass Quintet in Washington, D.C. His appearances from Maine to Oregon to Georgia and in-between 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, or chamber musician, and conductor. Since 1987 the "Robert Levy Brass Series" with Nichols Music Company (Waltham, Mass.) 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 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 North Texas State University.
For further details of Lawrence University, Conservatory of Music see http://www.lawrence.edu/conservatory/