As an educator, Robert has taught at Hunter College in Manhattan as a GCF and Adjunct instructor of music in both the Piano and Music Theory areas, and has given guest masterclasses for the Seattle International Piano Festival and Olympic Music Festival. Furthermore, Robert has served as an adjudicator for the Seattle International Piano Festival’s Bach and Classical Viennese International Festivals.

Robert received degree’s from James Madison University and the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of music, where he studied with Paulo Steinberg and Soyeon Kate Lee, respectively. Coming from a family of (mostly) engineers, Robert also studied applied Mathematics at JMU as a student of the Honors College until 2020. Despite opting for a musical profession, academic research and study has remained a central part of Robert’s life, having published two papers on the music of Schumann and Rachmaninoff in James Madison University’s undergraduate research journals. Presently, Robert’s doctoral research centers on the topic of Hommage, encompassing a breadth of repertoire that spans from the early baroque to the 21st century.

Currently, Robert resides in New York City where he is a Doctor of Musical Arts student at the CUNY Graduate Center as a student of Soyeon Kate Lee. Robert is grateful to have been supported by the National Federation of Music Clubs Young Artist Competition and the Seattle International Piano Competition as a prizewinner. Notable recent influences include Robert McDonald, Jeremy Denk, Conor Hanick, and Julio Elizalde, and previous full-time teachers include Paulo Steinberg, Emily Yap Chua and Nicholas Ross.

In his free time, Robert enjoys baking sourdough, coffee, and relaxing with his cat, Olive.