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The American composer, poet, conductor and flautist, Robert Charles Howard, began his journey as a composer at age 15 on the day he found a dozen sheets of staff paper in his mother’s music library. He filled the pages with notes of his own conjuring, which led him to compositional study. He studied Studied Piano, Composition, Voice, Music Theory at Eastern Michigan University at Eastern Michigan University (Class of 1967) with Dorothy James and José Serebrier; and later Studied Music Composition at Michigan State University (Class of 1970) with Jere Hutcheson and H. Owen Reed.
Fortified with degrees from both schools, Robert Charles Howard taught music theory and conducted the orchestra for 31 years at Saint Louis Community College at Meramec (July 1970-May 2001) - all the while composing for Meramec ensembles as well as the St. Louis New Music Circle, Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra and the orchestras of Washington University (Galant Ensemble) Washington University and several community orchestras and choruses in the Saint Louis area. He was commissioned to compose Horizons for the 1997 Missouri All State Orchestra and The Golden Circle for the Parkway South High School Orchestra’s appearance at the Missouri Music Educators conference in 2003.
Robert Charles Howard began conducting the Belleville Philharmonic Orchestra in 1995 composing Vision Quest, Journey of Discovery, a cantata in honor of the 200th anniversary of the Louis and Clark Expedition, as well as a number of arrangements and chamber works. He was commissioned by the Oratorio Society of Estes Park, Colorado to compose the cantata, Wilderness Reflections for the Oratorio Society of Estes Park for the100th anniversary of Rocky Mountain National Park. After moving to Estes Park with his wife, Robin in 2016 he has continued to enjoy composing in their new home in the mountains.
As a conductor, Robert Charles Howard has guided the Meramec Symphony Orchestra, Eliot Chapel Choir, UMSL Symphony Orchestra at University of Missouri-Saint Louis (August 2012-December 2013), and his beloved Belleville Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorale (1995-2016). After a serving as co-conductor of with Kathy Bowers as of the Oratorio Society of Estes Park chorus and orchestra, Kathryn moved Longmont and since August 2017 he is serving as the only conductor of the two groups. He is also volunteer at Crossroads Ministry of Estes Park (since March 2018). |
