Robert H. Bode

Robert H. Bode has been artistic director for Choral Arts since 2007. He is on the faculty at the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he is the Raymond R. Neevel/Missouri professor of choral music and director of choral activities. Before his position at UMKC, Dr. Bode was the Alma Meisnest Endowed Chair in the Humanities and Fine Arts and director of choral/vocal studies at Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA, where he conducted the 100-voice Chorale and the 30-voice Whitman Chamber Singers.

Bode received his doctorate in choral conducting from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music. Before attending the Cincinnati Conservatory, Bode won a conducting scholarship at the prestigious Aspen Music Festival, where he studied opera conducting with Fiora Contino.

In 2010 Bode and Choral Arts won the Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence from Chorus America. In addition, Choral Arts’ CD, “Mornings Like This,” won the American Prize for choral recorded music in 2010. Choral Arts’ live performance recording of Frank Ferko’s “Stabat Mater,” was released in the spring of 2011 by Gothic Records. Choral Arts’ latest CD, “Shall We Gather at the River: The Choral Music of William Hawley,” was released in December 2012.