KEVIN ROBISON
KEVIN ROBISON is an Atlanta-based pianist, composer, teacher, author, and theatre music director. He was the resident director of music at California’s Pacific Conservatory Theatre for seven years where he conducted professional productions and taught musical theatre classes. While there he wrote and published his first book, focusing on the actor’s process in singing, and also received a Los Angeles Robby Award Nomination for Best Musical Direction (Sweeney Todd). He also composed music for many plays, including Skylight, Macbeth, and Twelfth Night, for which he received best score recognition in Backstage West.
For three years he was the assistant conductor of Gay Men's Chorus of Los Angeles, where he wrote numerous arrangements and conducted many performances; co-created collaborative concerts with Broadway performers Susan Egan, Malcolm Gets, Joanna Gleason, Billy Porter and Lily Tomlin; collaborated with composers Jerry Herman and John Kander in tributes to their work; toured five countries in South America; and conducted the chorus in a tribute event honoring Sir Elton John. While in L.A. he was Artistic Director of South Coast Chorale, the LGBT Chorus of Orange County, and was a pianist for two stage plays written and directed by Del Shores: Sordid Lives (with members of the movie cast), and Blues for Willadean with Beth Grant and Octavia Spencer.
In 2007 he left California to become the first full-time artistic director of the Atlanta Gay Men’s Chorus, leading the ensemble in over 100 performances that included collaborations with Matt Alber, Jazz Orchestra Atlanta, Donzaleigh Abernathy and others. As artistic director he was instrumental in establishing the Atlanta Women’s Chorus and the umbrella arts organization, Voices of Note. His chief accomplishment with the AGMC was developing the genre of choral theatre, which led the organization to international acclaim in the LGBT choral movement. In 2017, he stepped down to return to teaching, theatre music direction, and solo recording. Most recently he was music director for The Harvey Milk Show and Merrily We Roll Along at Atlanta's most cutting-edge theatre, Actor’s Express, and was music director for Cabaret and Spring Awakening at Oglethorpe University where he is a voice teacher specializing in musical theatre.
As a pianist, he has recorded three digital holiday albums, Winter (2019), Winterludes (2020), and Winterludes 2 (2021), as well as the meditative experience, Breathe, all available in stores. A published composer and arranger of choral music, Kevin has received over one-hundred commissions from ensembles throughout the U.S. His work has been recorded and performed by New York City Gay Men’s Chorus, Turtle Creek Chorale, Santa Fe Desert Chorale, San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus, Seattle Men’s Chorus and a host of other ensembles. His extended original work for chorus and orchestra, Libertad, based on the poetry of Walt Whitman, was premiered by Voices of Note choruses in 2016. His choral music can be found in the catalogues of Hal Leonard, Oxford University Press, and Alfred Music Publishing, with additional choral music online at Sheet Music Plus where music from his piano albums can also be found.
Kevin hails from Big Stone Gap, Virginia, where he made his performing debut on the stage of the state’s official outdoor drama, The Trail of the Lonesome Pine. For questions about Kevin’s work or to contact him directly, use the form below.
