Prof. Robert McWilliams

Ph.D., M.Mus., B.Mus.Ed.

Prof. Rob McWilliams was born and raised in Melbourne. A United States resident from 1991 to 2014, he holds a Ph. D. in Music Education from the University of Minnesota, a Master's in Instrumental Conducting from Florida State University, and a Bachelor's in Music Education from the University of Melbourne. Prior to his time in the USA, Prof. McWilliams taught K-12 instrumental music in Melbourne, and served on the faculty of the University of Melbourne Institute of Education where he taught courses in brass, jazz, and instrumental music pedagogy and conducted symphonic and jazz ensembles as well as coaching chamber music. From 1996 to 2014 he served as Professor of Music and Director of Bands and Instrumental Music Education at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh where he directed symphonic wind bands, symphony orchestras, jazz ensembles, and taught courses in conducting, instrumental music education, and jazz. He also served as Head of the Music Department from 2011.

Prof. McWilliams has worked with ensembles at national, state, and regional levels and served as guest conductor and clinician in all states of Australia. Internationally, he has conducted and presented at major conferences in Japan, Hong Kong, the UK, Singapore, Europe, China, and many states of the USA. He has conducted the Australian Wind Orchestra at the Japan Band Clinic and WASBE conferences in Manchester, England and Hamamatsu, Japan. He was a conductor for the Bonyi International Youth Music Festival in Brisbane in 2007 and the Tutti International Festival in Beijing, China in 2011 and 2013. He served as the Artistic Director for Tutti 2019, heading a stellar international music faculty. Prof. McWilliams has been an invited presenter for the Singapore Ministry of Education, the Australian Band and Orchestra Directors’ Association, and the Australian Society of Music Educators. In the USA he has presented at the Music Educators National Conference, the Southeastern Music Education Symposium, the Wisconsin Music Educators Association, and at the prestigious Midwest International Band & Orchestra Clinic in Chicago. In addition to ensemble direction, he has extensive professional performing experience on trumpet and keyboard with a number of symphonic, brass, and jazz ensembles.

Prof. McWilliams has been published in the Journal of Band Research, Teaching Music Through Performance and is a composer/arranger with Alfred's Music. In early 2015 he relocated to Brisbane, and is currently working for Yamaha Music Australia as their Education Outreach Clinician and freelancing as a musician, educator, conductor, adjudicator, and composer/arranger.

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