Robert Best, DMA

Robert Best, lyric baritone, has been a member of the Vocal Studies Division since 2001. He holds the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Vocal Performance/Pedagogy from the University of Colorado at Boulder where he studied with Barbara Doscher and Robert Harrison. Dr. Best also earned BM (Vocal Performance) and MM (Vocal Performance and Vocal Performance/Pedagogy) degrees from Arizona State University where he studied with Jerry Doan.

Dr. Best was an apprentice artist with the Opera Colorado Artist Center, and has been a featured soloist with many symphony orchestras, including the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and the National Repertory Orchestra.  Other honors include participating in the International Festival of the Art Song, the Banff Centre of the Arts Academy of Singing in Canada, and the NATS Young Intern Program where he worked with Shirlee Emmons.

Dr. Best has performed in such diverse concert venues as: the College Band Directors National Conference, the Texoma NATS Region Fall Conference, the University of Oklahoma Clarinet Symposium, the Texas Music Educators Association State Convention, and Society of Composers, Inc. Regional Conferences.  He has also appeared as a clinician and/or performer at the Rio Grande and East Texas NATS Chapter Conventions, the College Music Society's South Central Regional Conference, the Society of Composers, Inc. National Conference, and the National NATS Convention.

Dr. Best is featured on three CDs devoted to vocal chamber music and voice with piano accompaniment on Capstone Records. The first two discs feature compositions by Phillip Schroeder, who also served as producer, music composed specifically for Dr. Best’s voice; Turning to the Center (2002), music for baritone/percussion, clarinets, and keyboards and Songs of My Affinities (2003), which includes a variety of instrumentation (cello, clarinet, piano, synthesizer, and percussion). The third project, entitled Portraits: Songs for Soprano, Baritone, and Piano (2007), was recorded as part of the Society of Composers, Inc. Performers' CD Series with Lynn Eustis, soprano and Elvia Puccinelli, piano.

Reviewers of these recording projects described Best's voice as:

• "...superb..." - New Classics
• "The performance by Robert Best is magnificent" - New Music Connoisseur
• "...a rich and attractive voice as well as an astute musicality..." "warm baritone voice... superb singing." “...exceptionally lush and beautiful...”
• “...admirable clarity and flawless intonation...” - The Journal of Singing
• "...sensitive and intelligent interpreter...crystal clear diction." - CMS South Central News Bulletin

Dr. Best's students have been named as award winners in numerous competitions:

Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions

• National Semi-Finalist (2008)
• Regional Competitions - First Place (tied) – Southwest (2007), Second Place – Tulsa (2015), Third Place and Encouragement Award Winner – Southwest (2009), Fourth Place – Gulf Coast (2014)
• District Competitions - First Place – Houston (2014, 2013), one of four winners – St. Louis (2014), Encouragement Award Winner – Arkansas (2020), Houston (2019), New Orleans (2015)

MTNA National Young Artist Voice Competitions

• First Place (2020, 2016, 2015)
• Second Place (2018, 2011, 2010, 2008, 2007, 1998)
• Third Place (2013, 2012, 2005, 2003)
• National Finalist (2021, 2019, 2017, 1999)

Crescendo International Music Awards – Vocal Division

• First Place (2008)
• Third Place (2010)
• Honorable Mention (2014)

Texoma NATS Region Student Auditions

• First Place – “Singer of the Year” Competition (2014, 2007), Third Place (2004)
• Grady Harlan Award Winner (2013)
• Finalists in collegiate divisions (2005-2022, 2003, 2002).

His students have been accepted into summer programs such as the San Francisco Opera Merola Program, Glimmerglass Opera Festival, Chautauqua Opera Festival, Central City Opera, Aspen Music Festival Opera Theater Center, Opera Saratoga, Opera North, Opera in the Ozarks, Seagle Music Colony, Opera NEO, and SongFest, among others.

Dr. Best's students and former students have also performed in such venues, competitions, and organizations as the San Francisco Opera, Houston Grand Opera, Santa Fe Opera, Opera Colorado, Arizona Opera, Utah Opera, Nashville Opera, Knoxville Opera, Austin Lyric Opera, Opera Omaha, Virginia Opera, El Paso Opera, Chautauqua Opera Festival, Central City Opera, Minnesota Opera Artist Center, Haymarket Opera Festival, First Place (2015) – West Tennessee District – Metropolitan Opera National Council Auditions, the finals of the Eleanor McCollum Competition for Young Singers – Houston Grand Opera, Kurt Weill Award Winner (2021) and Finalist (2023) - Lotte Lenya Competition, the semi-finals of the Dallas Opera Guild Vocal Competition, Finalist – Chanticleer, Opera Festival di Roma, Berkshire Opera Company, College Light Opera, the Soldiers’ Chorus - US Army Field Band, Heritage of America Band – United States Air Force, and national and regional musical theatre venues including the Broadway productions of Hairspray!, Legally Blonde, The Lightning Thief: The Percy Jackson Musical, national tours of West Side Story, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas and Fosse!, Texas Theatre under the Stars, and the Broadway Theatre Project.

In addition to these awards, his students have been accepted into graduate and post-graduate programs at such institutions as Indiana University, Rice University, University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, University of Michigan, Boston University, Boston University Opera Institute, University of Colorado at Boulder, Florida State University, North Carolina School of the Arts, University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory, Arizona State University, and the Cleveland Institute of Music.

Dr. Best has served as the Vice-President, President, and Past-President of the Dallas/Fort Worth NATS Chapter, Vice-President of the Greater Houston NATS Chapter, as well as the Texoma NATS Region North Texas District Governor.