Conductor of Ensemble and Ancora

For more than 30 years with the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir—since founder Susan Rahl tapped him to be the first (and only) Artistic Director of the organization—Robert Geary has developed a relationship with PEBCC, its students and the community it serves that is unique and profound in the world of choral music today. Refusing to only explore historical music, Geary defines PEBCC through his determined advocacy of “new music," commissions, premiers, and recordings of innovative and demanding new works by today’s leading composers.

 

Daring his young students to conquer their fear of the unknown, to withhold judgement of the unfamiliar, and helping them acquire the tools they need to master and appreciate the adventurous programming he sets forth, Geary sees the resulting qualities of intellectual and technical focus, discipline, and long term commitment as building blocks in the development of the young person for the adult challenges of tomorrow.

 

In 1993 Geary was awarded the International Peace Child Medal for his role as co-founder of the historic Golden Gate International Children’s Choral Festival which is triennially hosted by PEBCC. In 1997 he received a special award for Outstanding Conductorial Achievement in Giessen, Germany and in 1998 Geary received a special award for interpretation at the Miedzyzdroje Choral Festival in Poland. In 2002 he was named Music Educator of the Year by KDFC and in 2003 he received the Lois Blair Rawlings Educational Inspiration Award.

 

Geary has served on the California Arts Commission’s Peer Review Panel and as an adjudicator and guest conductor in the United States and internationally. Recordings of his choirs can be found on Harmonia Mundi, Koch International, Swiss International Radio and Innova. Geary also founded the new music chamber choir Volti and he is the Artistic Director of the San Francisco Choral Society.

 

Under his direction, PEBCC has the distinction of twice having received the award for Adventurous Programming from ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), an accomplishment equalled by only one other children's choir in the United States.

 

Geary and his choirs have performed throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Cuba, Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary, Germany, Austria, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Italy, Slovenia, United Kingdom, Russia, Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, Maylasia, Singapore, Croatia and Serbia. The Choir has performed at the Oregon Bach Festival, the Newport Music Festival, with Oakland Ballet, San Francisco Symphony, Berkeley Symphony, San Francisco Opera, Mark Morris Dance Group, and Oakland East Bay Symphony. They have performed for the national conferences of Chorus America, the American Choral Directors Association, the Organization of American Kodaly Educators and the College Music Society. They have been heard on National Public Radio, BBC Radio, on various television stations, and in film scores.