ABOUT ROBBY

New York-based Robby Meese is a conductor and arts leader dedicated to human connection through music.

 

Robby is the Director of Bach Vespers New York, the longest-running continuous cantata series in the United States. Founded in 1968 at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church on Central Park West, Bach Vespers is the first music series in the Western Hemisphere to present the cantatas of J.S. Bach in the proper historical context of a Lutheran service. Check out Bach Vespers' 59th season here. Robby also serves as artistic director of Orchestra Futures, an ensemble which platforms New York's extraordinary young professional musicians. Recent recording projects include an all-Strauss program featuring the Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings and Meese's own arrangement of the Cello Sonata for cello and orchestra, supported by New York City's Department of Cultural Affairs. The album, featuring cello soloist John-Henry Crawford, is currently being edited for release. Meese was recently named the new artistic director of Music Before 1800, the longest running early music series in New York City. 

 

Robby regularly serves as cover conductor with the New York Philharmonic and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, DC. In recent engagements with the NSO, he has assisted in the production of the orchestra's new recordings of Beethoven's 6th, 7th, and 8th Symphonies as well as Walkers Sinfonia no. 5. Robby also aided in the production of the NSO's medici.tv broadcast in November 2022, which featured Anne Akiko Meyers in the world premiere of Michael Daugherty's concerto for violin and orchestra, Blue Electra. 

 

A trusted eye behind the camera, Robby has been asked to direct concert broadcasts and operate supertitles with the Albany (NY) Symphony, the Dearborn (MI) Symphony, and Joyce DiDonato's Eden. He regularly joins The Washington Chorus as cover conductor for their orchestral concerts at The Kennedy Center and the Strathmore Music Center.

 

Robby has collaborated on new works by composers Michael Daugherty, Stephen Mitton, Natalia Camargo Duarte, Clayton Delp, and Shauna Bierly, and has performed with numerous vocal, string, wind, and brass soloists. 

 

Robby spent the summer of 2019 as a conducting scholar at the Eastern Music Festival, and has had the privilege of learning from Christian Măcelaru, Gerard Schwartz, Jose-Luis Novo, Grant Cooper, and Verena Mösenbichler-Bryant. His work has been supported by the University of Michigan Diversity and Inclusion Grant, the University of Michigan Dorothy Greenwald Scholarship, the Duke University Benenson Award in the Arts, the Duke University Undergraduate Research Support, and the Duke University Department of Music.