TMEA 2017 Professional Development Conference Program

TMEA SELECTED PERFORMANCE ENSEMBLES // THURSDAY, APRIL 6, 2017
Choral Music with the Tennessee Music Education Association. Among his most cherished
recognitions is the “My Favorite Educator Award” from the Memphis-Shelby County
Education Association. This award is given based on an essay written about a teacher by a
former student whose life was positively impacted through the teacher’s work.
Robert Gregg
9:00 –9:50 PM | BELMONT UNIVERSITY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
Robert Gregg, Conductor
Presidential Ballroom AE
The Belmont University Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1984 with the arrival to Belmont
of its current director, Dr. Robert Gregg. From its meager beginnings of 20 players, the
ensemble has grown to an 85-piece orchestra with over 50 string players. The entire orchestra
is comprised of Belmont students, both music majors and non-music majors.
The orchestra performs at least twice every semester. A typical concert year would include two
standard orchestral concerts, a performance with Belmont choral ensembles for “Christmas
at Belmont (viewed nationally over 400 PBS stations),” a performance “in the pit” with the
Opera Workshop, a special performance at the annual President’s Concert, and the Classical
Performer’s Concert. This last event brings together the orchestra with some of the most
talented student soloists at the university. Through an audition process, approximately six
soloists in strings, woodwinds, brass, percussion, piano, voice, and composition are chosen to
perform concertos, arias, or student compositions in formal concert with the orchestra.
The orchestra has performed at several colleges and conventions during its lifetime,
including the Tennessee Music Educators Association convention four times, the Tennessee
Technological University, Scarritt College, Trevecca Nazarene University, and the ACDA
Southeast regional conference.
Dr. Robert B. Gregg is currently Professor of Music and Orchestra Director in the Belmont
University School of Music in Nashville, TN. He received the Bachelor of Music Education
degree from Oklahoma Baptist University and the Master of Music Education and Doctor
of Philosophy degrees from the University of North Texas. While at North Texas, Gregg
served as Assistant Conductor of Orchestras under Maestro Anshel Brusilow, Assistant
to the Dean of the School of Music, and Brass Choir Conductor.
Currently in his thirty-second year at Belmont, Dr. Gregg teaches conducting and
music literature at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. He also serves as pit
orchestra conductor for the Belmont Opera Theater, having conducted diverse operas
as The Magic Flute, Die Fledermaus, Dialogue of the Carmelites, The Medium, and The
Bartered Bride as well as several musicals. He participates every summer as a conductor
in Belmont’s String Crossings Camp. Gregg has guest conducted the Missouri All-State
Orchestra, the Nashville Symphony, TX Region 9 Honors Orchestra, the University of
Central Florida Orchestra, the Tennessee Governor’s School of the Arts Orchestra, and
was the first conductor of the Lake Cities Symphony, a civic orchestra in the Dallas area.
He adjudicates across the nation with Heritage Festivals. Dr. Gregg and the Belmont
Symphony Orchestra can be seen every December on many PBS stations on “Christmas
at Belmont.”
TENNESSEE MUSIC EDUCATION ASSOCIATION | 51