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The American choral conductor, composer and music pedagogue, grew up in a musical family in central Kansas. His mother taught piano, his father played trumpet his whole life, and both of his sisters and he majored in music in college. He earned an undergraduate degree in Elementary and Secondary Music Education at Bethel College (Kansas), his Master of Mausic degree in Vocal Performance from Wichita State University and received his Ph.D. in Choral Music Education from Florida State University.
R. Paul Crabb has been Director of Choral Activities and Chair of Graduate Choral Conducting at the University of Missouri-Columbia since 2003. His ensembles have performed at state, regional and national conventions and have traveled extensively in Mexico, Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Russia, Bulgaria and Australia. He served as assistant conductor at the Russian/American Choral Symposium for two years where his choir was invited as the resident American choir at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1998-1999, he took a one year sabbatical leave to serve as a Visiting Guest Professor in Salzburg, Austria, where he also continued his research on a 16th century Austro-German composer, Georg Prenner, and where he taught and worked with the choir of the Salzburg Cathedral. He has taught conducting in Taiwan, 18th-century music in England. During Summer 2001, he studied 16th century polyphony with the renowned Peter Phillips in Rimini, Italy. More recently he served as Guest Visiting Choral Professor at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary - the first American selected for that position. In 2006, teaching and conducting engagements took him to Italy, Slovakia, Hungary and Taiwan. In 2007 he became the first American conductor invited to lecture in the Choral Department at the prestigious University of Vienna's Universität für Musik und Darstellende Kunst. In 2008 Crabb accepted the position as Resident Guest Conductor of the Baroque Orchestra of Domenica Cimarosa in Avellino, Italy, where he has conducted performances in the Naples and the Amalfi Coast region for the past several years and recently completed a recording project with the same ensemble. He also accepted a position as the resident conductor for the Dante Music and Arts Festival in Nagoya, Japan during March of 2010. Invitations for 2011-2012 included California, New York, Washington, D.C., Italy, Austria and Brazil. In 2015 he was awarded a research leave at MU, using the time to lecture, perform and research choral music in Sweden, including lectures and performances at Lund University, Malmӧ College of Music and the Royal Conservatory in Stockholm. He also presented seminars and workshops in Austria, Italy and Slovakia. Invitations for 2016 include Austria, Italy, China and Poland.
Under R. Paul Crabb 's leadership, MU's University Singers have been recognized as one of the premiere university choirs in the USA. In November of 2009, they were invited to perform at the national convention of the National Collegiate Choral Organization at Yale University - one of nine choirs selected by audition from across the USA. In May of 2010 they accepted an invitation to perform at some of the most prestigious venues in Milan, Bologna, Rome and Salerno, Italy. This tour was sponsored by several institutions in these cities, as well as the office of the U. S. Consulate General in Naples. In January 2011 they performed by invitation at the Missouri Music Educators Association state convention. In March of that same year, they traveled to Chicago following an acceptance of an invitation to perform at the national convention of the American Choral Directors Association during a session on eighteenth-century performance practice. This same ensemble was the featured choir for a residency of Peter Phillips of The Tallis Scholars in April of 2012. In November of 2012, Crabb hosted Dr. Joseph Flummerfelt's residency during which he worked with students and conducted a performance of Choral Union's Lord Nelson Mass. In January of 2013, they returned to Missouri Music Educators Association conference as one of three collegiate choirs featured for the special 75th Anniversary convention. In May 2014 they were invited to perform in Austria and Hungary, including the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest and performing with the Salzburg Cathedral choir. In 2019 they were one of twelve collegiate ensembles from across the country selected by blind audition to perform at the national convention of the American Choral Directors Association. The following year they were invited to perform at the ACDA regional convention to collaborate with Prairie View A&M University and the Arkansas Symphony for a performance of the rarely-heard work by William Grant Still, And They Lynched Him on a Tree. The University Singers’ CD released by Centaur Records in 2021, "Black Pierrot", has been received with favorable reviews.
R. Paul Crabb has received several distinctions for his teaching: in 1997, he was awarded the Educator of the Year award at Truman State University; in 1998, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching honored Crabb as the Missouri Professor of the Year and in 2003, Truman State University awarded him its most prestigious teaching award, the Walker and Doris Allen Fellowship; and in April of 2012 he received the William T. Kemper Award for Teaching Excellence from MU, and the Outstanding Teaching Award from MU’s School of Music. He is active as a clinician and conductor for district, regional and all-state choirs. His published research has appeared in the MENC research journal, Update, and Choral Journal. He has also published editions of choral music with several major publishers in the USA, including Alliance Publications, Inc.
R. Paul Crabb is also Artistic Director and conductor of Prometheus, a professional vocal ensemble of singers selected from across the USA. He currently lives in Columbia, Missouri. |
