Music Director Robert Russell  

Dr. Robert Russell, professor of music at the University of Southern Maine, is a native of Roanoke, Virginia, where he grew up in the Southern Baptist tradition of choral expression as an integral part of religious life. He studied music and religion at Wake Forest University (BA) and choral music with Lara Hoggard at the University of North Carolina (MM). He received the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in the literature and performance of choral music at the University of Colorado where he studied with Lynn Whitten and Barbara Doscher. He continued his studies with Robert Shaw, Alice Parker, Helmuth Rilling, and Elmer Iseler.

In 1979 Bob and his wife Linda moved to Portland to begin his work at the University of Southern Maine. At that time he began his tenure as music director of The Choral Art Society’s three ensembles: Singers, Camerata, and the symphonic Masterworks Chorus, which performs annually with the Portland Symphony Orchestra. During his tenure as music director, CAS has performed many major works with the PSO, including the world premiere of Derek Holman's Two Poems, commissioned to celebrate the 25th anniversary of CAS. In 1991 Bob prepared CAS for a performance of Brahms' Ein Deutsches Requiem led by distinguished guest conductor Robert Shaw, and in 2008 the PSO invited him as guest conductor for the Requiem. Bob has been an advocate for new choral music and instituted CAS' commission of works by local composers George Andoniadis, Scott Harris, Travis Ramsey, Jerry Bowder, and J. Mark Scearce as well as the noted North Carolina composer Dan Locklair. The Choral Art Society has released three CDs: Windswept the Trees: The Choral Music of Dan Locklair (1996), and Christmas at the Cathedral (1999 and 2004). In 2002 CAS toured Europe, singing in Budapest, Vienna, and Salzburg.

Bob lives in Portland with his wife Linda, a piano teacher and author of numerous program notes for his choral performances.