Dr. Robert Grechesky, music education, conductor, euphonium

Dr. Robert Grechesky is professor of music and director of bands at Butler University. In addition to his duties with the band program, he teaches conducting, music education courses, wind band history and literature, and euphonium. He received his B.A. in music education from Rutgers University, and his M.M. and Ph.D. in music education and conducting from the University of Wisconsin - Madison.

Before coming to Butler in 1973 as the director of the marching band and concert band, Dr. Grechesky was director of instrumental music and director of bands at Middletown High School in New Jersey, and was assistant to the director of the University of Wisconsin Marching Band.

He holds memberships and offices in many professional organizations, including the American Bandmasters Association, the College Band Directors National Association (North Central Division secretary/treasurer), the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, the International Society for the Investigation and Promotion of Wind Music (International Board member), Indiana Bandmasters Association, Music Educators National Conference, Indiana Music Educators Association (former board member and editor of state journal), National Band Association (member of Composition Competition Committee), the Ralph Vaughan Williams Society, and the Percy Grainger Society (life member). He also served on the Fine Arts Advisory Council for the State Board of Education where he helped rewrite the curriculum guidelines for music in the state of Indiana.

Dr. Grechesky is very active as a conductor, clinician, adjudicator, and euphonium soloist. As a euphoniumist, he has performed with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, the Indianapolis Brass Choir, the Indianapolis Symphonic Band, the White River Brass Quintet, the Indianapolis Chamber Brass, the Indianapolis Concert Band, the Indiana Wind Symphony, and the Kokomo Park Band, as well as serving as a regular member of the Harvey Phillips TubaCompany and Tuba Santas. He presented the premiere of Bradley Nelson's euphonium concerto, Magnificat: Victimae Paschali in Clowes Memorial Hall, has performed regularly in recording studio sessions, and has been a guest soloist with bands and ensembles throughout the Midwest. In March of 2003 he premiered the Concerto for Euphonium and Wind Ensemble, a newly commissioned concerto by internationally renowned Juilliard composer Eric Ewazen, with the Butler University Symphonic Wind Ensemble in Clowes Memorial Hall, and has commissioned two more euphonium solos: Waiting for Gounod: A Set of Variations in Nine Offices for euphonium and string orchestra by Frank Felice, and Dual Carbs for euphonium and mixed chamber ensemble by Michael Schelle.

As a conductor, his groups have performed for the conventions of the Mid-Europe International Conference for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles, the International Society for the Promotion and Investigation of Wind Music (IGEB), the American Bandmasters Association, the International Percussive Arts Society, the International Trumpet Guild, the Great American Brass Band Festival, and the Indiana Music Educators Association (five times). He has been responsible for the commissioning and premieres of a myriad of works for band and wind ensemble, and he has received praise from composers Karel Husa, Vincent Persichetti, Michael Schelle, Eric Ewazen, Frank Felice, James Syler, Arnold Franchetti, and Bradley Nelson for his interpretive handling of their works. He has guest conducted bands in several countries, including Honor Bands and All-State Bands in several states, Panama, the Western Jamaica International Music Festival, the Newfoundland and Labrador Musicfest, the Great Lake Music Ambassadors in Washington, D.C. Toronto, Ontario, and Florida, the College Band Directors National Association Divisional and National Conventions, and the Wind Orchestra of the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, England.  He conducted the world premiere of Eric Ewazen's Shadowcatcher with the American Brass Quintet in Clowes Memorial Hall, and has conducted the United States Army Band "Pershing's Own" on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., in Clowes Memorial Hall of Butler University, and most recently at Brucker Hall in Washington, D.C., where he conducted the band and the Army Brass Quintet in the Washington premiere of Shadowcatcher. He has conducted both the American Brass Quintet and the Empire Brass Quintet in concert, and has collaborated with international instrumental and vocal artists in a variety of settings.

In the summer of 2000, he conducted the Butler University Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble on a European tour of Vienna, Prague, Budapest, Salzburg, and Schladming, Austria where they performed a featured concert for the International Mid-Europe Conference for Symphonic Bands and Ensembles. In the summer of 2002, he led the Indianapolis Brass Choir on a tour of Germany, Austria, and Italy that culminated in a concert for the International Society for the Promotion and Investigation of Wind Music at its International Conference in Lana, Italy.

In March of 2005, the Butler University Symphonic Band and Butler Chamber Orchestra represented the USA as the first American instrumental concert groups to participate in the Spring International Music Festival in St. Petersburg, Russia, as they performed to wildly enthusiastic audiences in concerts at the Meeting Hall of the Great Assembly, the Glazunov Concert Hall of the Rimsky Korsakov Conservatory and at the Philharmonic Hall of St. Petersburg. In July of 2005, he led the Indianapolis Brass Choir on their second international tour, with concerts in Krakow, Poland, Trencin, Slovakia, Vienna, Austria, and Prague, Czech Republic. In March of 2008, the Butler University Wind Ensemble, under his direction, toured Prague, Vienna, Kremsmuenster, and was the first American ensemble ever selected to perform at the International Festival Soirees Musicales de Bissen, in Luxembourg.

Dr. Grechesky is artistic director and conductor of the Indianapolis Symphonic Winds, a professional wind band dedicated to the purpose of bringing quality performances of band and wind ensemble music to the people of Indiana. He is also the music director and conductor of the Indianapolis Brass Choir, one of the most active performing groups in Indiana, and serves as conductor for the annual Tubachristmas Concert in downtown Indianapolis. He served as the band liaison between the PAX-I committee and Walt Disney Productions and was co-director of the Fanfare Trumpets for the Opening Ceremonies of the Tenth Pan American Games; he was the director of the massed bands for the grand opening of Indianapolis Union Station, served as Music Director of My Indiana Holiday Wishes, a Christmas show presented at Market Square Arena, and coordinates special musical events for the Indianapolis Commission for the Downtown, including the 1991 and 1997 NCAA Final Four Basketball Championships, the Opening Ceremonies of the 1991 World Gymnastics Championships, the 1992 and 1995 Olympic Swimming Trials, and the opening ceremonies of the 2001 World Police and Fire Games, staged in the RCA Dome. He was also been nominated by the League of Professionally Managed Theaters for a "Pat" Award for Best Musical Direction for his conducting of Indianapolis Civic Theater's production of Peter Pan.

Dr. Grechesky is also actively engaged in research on the band and its history and literature, as well as the art of conducting. He has given presentations and papers on band literature and conducting at conferences on the state, regional, national, and international levels, including several presentations at the Indiana Music Educators State Convention, six regional and two national conventions of the College Band Directors National Association, the eighth international congress of the International Society for the Investigation of Wind Music at Oberschützen, Austria, the ninth congress at Toblach, Italy, and the fourteenth congress in Bad Waltersdorf, Austria; the fifth world conference of the World Association of Symphonic Bands and Ensembles at Manchester, England, and the eighth congress in Schladming, Austria. He is an American reader and serves as a member of the selection committee for the Fritz Thelen Prize, given by the IGEB to the outstanding American dissertation on the topic of the wind band for the last bienniem.

Dr. Grechesky has published many articles, books, and musical editions. He is the co-author of a reference text entitled, Wind Ensemble Literature; he is co-author of a text for band conductors titled Best Music for High School Bands; he has edited and published several unknown band works of Ralph Vaughan Williams and Gustav Holst; he has prepared an American band edition of Reinhold Gliere's Overture Solonelle; and he has edited several wind ensemble works from the Szechnyi National Library in Budapest, Hungary. He has received six academic grants and a faculty fellowship from Butler University for his research, and was the recipient of a Lilly Endowment Grant to prepare and teach a new conducting course titled "Conducting: The Nonverbal Art," utilizing team teaching concepts with a conductor and a mime/actor.

Learn about Butler's annual All-Star Band for Indiana high school students here.

E-mail: rgreches@butler.edu