Biography

Robert Wakeley is a freelance flutist and teacher based in Portland, Oregon. Additionally, he is Acting 3rd flute/piccoloist with the Rogue Valley Symphony, 2nd flutist/piccoloist with the Eugene Concert Choir and Orchestra, and performs regularly as a substitute with the Helena Symphony in Montana. He was also the 3rd flutist/piccoloist with Orchestra NEXT (Eugene Ballet Company) for their 2015-2016 and 2021-2022 seasons. He has been awarded the Thelma Hunter Schubert Club Award at the Schubert Club Scholarship Competition in Minneapolis and was runner-up in the 2016 Ceour d’Alene Symphony National Young Artist Competition in Spokane, Washington.

In addition to the traditional repertoire, Robert is a dedicated performer of new and lesser-known works for the flute. He recently performed live on Minnesota Public Radio in a concert that featured world premieres by two young Minnesota composers. He was also recently invited to perform as guest flutist and piccoloist with the Balkanicus Contemporary Ensemble in Minneapolis in a program of world and North American premieres of works by Balkan composers. In 2015, as a performance fellow at Hong Kong’s Modern Academy, he played in the Asian premiere of Edgard Varese’s Etude pour Espace for orchestra, chorus, and spacialized sound diffusion with the Neue Vocalsolisten Stuttgart. He has also collaborated on numerous world premieres with members of the Oregon Composers Forum and was invited to perform with his Pierrot ensemble at the 2016 Oregon Bach Festival Composers Symposium.

Robert maintains a small private teaching studio in Portland. He is also the flute instructor for the Rogue Valley Symphony’s education programs, is on the faculty of the Key to Music music school in Vancouver, Washington, and works as a winds and brass coach for the Metropolitan Youth Symphony in Portland. His students have successfully auditioned into local and state honor bands as well as the Greater Twin Cities Youth Symphonies, one of the premier youth orchestra programs in the United States. He has also been a section coach for the Minnesota All-State band and a flute coach and chamber music clinician for the University of Minnesota Honor Band and at the Complete Flutist workshop at the University of Minnesota and the Festival of the Oaks in Prior Lake, Minnesota.

Robert is currently a doctoral candidate in Flute Performance at the University of Minnesota. Previous studies include at the University of Oregon, Carleton College, and the National University of Cuyo in Mendoza, Argentina. His principal teachers have included Immanuel Davis, Molly Barth, Zart Dombourian-Eby, Martha Jamsa, Lars Nilsson, and Sarah Bassingthwaighte.