Robert Musser, guest conductor

Robert Musser is Maestro Emeritus of the Tacoma Concert Band. He founded the band in 1981 and was the band’s only music director and conductor for 38 years. He retired from the band in 2018. Through his artistic vision and leadership the band has grown to enjoy a national and international reputation for excellence.

Musser is Professor Emeritus at the University of Puget Sound, where he was Director of Bands, Professor of Oboe and Saxophone and Chairman of Winds and Percussion. After a 34-year career at the University of Puget Sound, Musser retired as Distinguished Professor of Music in 2005.

Musser holds degrees in Conducting, Woodwind Performance, and Music Education from Lebanon Valley College, Pennsylvania, and from The University of Michigan. Before coming to Puget Sound he taught at Wichita State University and before that in public schools in California and Pennsylvania.

While at The University of Puget Sound, Musser developed the University Wind Ensemble into a nationally recognized ensemble and one of the finest in the Northwest. Under his direction, the UPS Wind Ensemble performed on the conference programs of the Washington Music Educators Association, the Northwest Music Educators Association, the Northwest and Western Division of the College Band Directors National Association, and the Western International Band Clinic. Many of his former students are now enjoying successful careers as band directors at all levels from elementary school to college.

During his career at Puget Sound, Musser was instrumental in helping to raise the standard of excellence for bands in Washington, Oregon, and British Columbia by maintaining high performance and adjudication standards in the clinics he presented and contests he adjudicated. He has presented clinics for the National Association of College Wind and Percussion Instructors, National and Northwest Music Educators Association, Washington Music Educators Association, College Band Directors National Association and Western International Band Clinic.

Musser was the first music director and conductor of the Puget Sound Youth Wind Ensemble. He has conducted numerous regional and state festivals and honor bands and appeared as a guest conductor of both bands and orchestras throughout the United States, Canada, China, Russia, and Ukraine. Some of the prestigious ensembles he has conducted include: The U.S. Air Force Band, the U.S. Army Field Band, the Military Band of The People’s Liberation Army of China, the New York Allstate Wind Ensemble, the Pearl River (professional) Orchestra of Guangzhou China, the Shanghai China Conservatory Orchestra and Band, and semi-professional bands in Russia and Ukraine. Also, he was asked by Gerard Schwartz, the Seattle Symphony conductor, to conduct a brass ensemble for a concert celebrating the opening of Benaroya Hall.

For many years he performed as principal oboe with the Tacoma Symphony and as a woodwind specialist (playing oboe, English horn, flute, clarinet, and saxophone) throughout the Puget Sound area. He played with the Seattle Opera “tour orchestra” and the Fifth Avenue and Paramount Theaters, as well as solo performances with the Tacoma Symphony and numerous college, community, and high school orchestras and bands in Washington and Oregon. Before moving to Tacoma in 1971, Musser played oboe in professional orchestras in Harrisburg (Pennsylvania), Honolulu, and Wichita; and as a “free-lance” professional woodwind performer in Harrisburg, Baltimore, Honolulu, San Francisco, and Wichita.

Among Musser’s awards are the National Band Association Citation of Excellence and election into the prestigious American Bandmasters Association. (An honorary organization for distinguished band conductors.)He received the prestigious Sudler Order of Merit of the John Philip Sousa Foundation, in recognition of many special contributions to bands and band music, and he was elected into the inaugural class of the Washington Music Educators Association Hall of Fame.

Upon his retirement from the University of Puget Sound the Mayor of Tacoma, on behalf of the City Council, proclaimed April 22, 2005 as Robert Musser Day in the City of Tacoma “in celebrating the contributions of this outstanding educator, musician and mentor.”