Biography

Robert Wakeley is a freelance flutist and teacher based in Portland, Oregon. He performs as 2nd flute with the Rogue Valley Symphony, 2nd flute/piccolo with the Eugene Concert Choir and Orchestra, and as a regular substitute with orchestras around the Pacific Northwest, including the Vancouver and Helena Symphonies, Orchestra NOVA Northwest, and the Boise Philharmonic. He was also 3rd flute/piccolo 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, was runner-up in the 2016 Coeur d’Alene Symphony National Young Artist Competition in Spokane, Washington, and has been a finalist in both the solo and chamber music categories of the Frances Walton Competition in Seattle.

In addition to the traditional repertoire, Robert is a dedicated performer of new and lesser-known works for the flute. He has performed live on Minnesota Public Radio in a concert that featured world premieres by two young Minnesota composers. He has also performed 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 spatialized 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 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 in Minnesota and the Metropolitan Youth Symphony in Portland. 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 received his doctorate in Flute Performance from the University of Minnesota and previously studied 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.