About

Robert Baldwin is Music Director and Conductor for the Salt Lake Symphony and Director of Orchestras and Professor of Conducting at the University of Utah. He is also the founding conductor for Sinfonia Salt Lake, a professional chamber orchestra that made its critically acclaimed debut in 2016. He has appeared across the North America, Europe and Asia as a conductor and viola player. International conducting appearances include the Hunan Symphony in China, Busan Maru International Music Festival in South Korea, Eutin Festspiele in Germany, Kuopio Academy of Music in Finland, and the Hermitage Camerata in Saint Petersburg, Russia, and tours with the University of Utah Chamber Orchestra to London, Vienna, Graz and Salzburg. In demand as a guest conductor and clinician, he also has conducted performances with the Great Falls Symphony, Lafayette Symphony, Lexington Philharmonic, Lexington Singers, Flagstaff Festival of the Arts, Abilene Tri-Collegiate Opera, and numerous All-State and regional festival orchestras across the U.S.A. His performances and ensembles have received international attention and have been featured on New York’s WQXR Classical Radio, and nationally broadcast radio programs, including Performance Today, Highway 89 and Weekend Edition. Dr. Baldwin’s preconcert talks and community music classes are popular mainstays of the Utah Arts scene. His award-winning blog on music and creativity is Before the Downbeat.

Also an active violist and viola d’amore player, he has had a variety of experiences, including guest appearances with the Amadeus Trio, and both the Saint Petersburg and Stanford String Quartets, as well as with Vivaldi Virtuosi (UT), the Sedona Chamber Music Festival (AZ), the Eutin Festspiele (Germany), and as a soloist with several orchestras in the western US. He was violist of the Arizona-based Coconino Chamber Ensemble from 1989-1999, and was principal violist for the Flagstaff Symphony, Arkansas Symphony, and Arizona Opera. Recent solo appearances on viola and viola d’amore include recitals in the United States, Germany and Mexico.

Previously, he has held faculty and conducting positions at the University of Kentucky, Lexington Philharmonic, New American Symphony, Flagstaff Symphony and Northern Arizona University. Dr. Baldwin studied conducting in the United States and in Saint Petersburg, Russia, holding degrees in viola performance from the University of Northern Colorado and the University of Iowa, and a DMA in orchestral conducting from the University of Arizona. He makes his home in Salt Lake City, Utah where, in his spare time, he enjoys reading, writing, hiking, and spending time with his family.