Choir Leadership & Management

Robert enjoys a distinguished career as a conductor, choir trainer and singer and is currently also leading and transforming the Melrose Music Festival as its first Artistic Director.

He graduated from Edinburgh University with an Honours degree in music having sung as a Lay Clerk at St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Edinburgh. As a singer he performed  regularly with the professional ensemble Cappella Nova with whom he toured and made recordings, as well as singing solo oratorio/evangelist roles.

As a conductor, and whilst still at University, Robert won scholarships to study conducting in London and Dublin, the latter with Janos Fürst and the New Irish Chamber Orchestra. He co-founded and directed the Edinburgh University Chamber Orchestra and was for 5 years the assistant Musical Director and Chorus Master of Edinburgh Grand Opera, working with them on a variety of productions in the King’s Theatre there.

He also founded the Glasgow Chamber Choir and was the Chorus Master of the Edinburgh Royal Choral Union for over 7 years, acknowledged by The Scotsman as the “vision and driving forward behind a creative revolution” with the Choral. During that time, he worked with conductors such as Roderick Brydon, Simon Halsey, Garry Walker, and Martyn Brabbins, and orchestras including the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the SCO, and the Scottish Ensemble, on such works as Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Britten’s War Requiem, and Rachmaninov’s The Bells. He produced and directed the Choral’s first commercial CD. During his career he has sung in and conducted many world premieres including works by Kenneth Leighton, Sir James MacMillan, and Cecil Coles.