Louis Robert
Louis Robert was a Dutch musician, city organist of Haarlem's Great or St Bavo Church, and choir conductor. Born Louis Rubbert, he was the son of the violinist and conductor Willem Robert and Hendrika Antoinetta Brouwer. He studied violin with his father, piano with Leander Schlegel, and music theory with Wilhelm Heinrich Christoph Schmölling. After studying organ with Jean-Baptiste de Pauw at the Amsterdam Conservatory, he graduated in 1902 and, in 1904, became the second organist in the Netherlands to receive the Prix d'Excellence, then the country's highest distinction.
Robert served as organist at the Remonstrant Church in Haarlem, the Lutheran Church in Zaandam, and, from 1907, the Mennonite Church at Oosterpark in Amsterdam. He developed a major reputation as an organ virtuoso and performed throughout the Netherlands. In 1913 he succeeded Willem Ezerman as city organist of Haarlem's Great or St Bavo Church, where he gave municipal organ concerts and supervised the main Christian Müller organ. During his tenure, the city's afternoon and, from 1919, evening concerts attracted large audiences.
Although his concert schedule limited his teaching, Robert prepared Hendrik Andriessen for conservatory study. Andriessen dedicated his Sonata Da Pacem, Domine to Robert, and Robert gave the first performances of all of Andriessen's organ works written between 1913 and 1920, including Toccata and Fête-Dieu. Robert also initiated Haarlem's purchase of the Cavaillé-Coll organ formerly installed at the Palace for Popular Industry. In 1918 he became organist of Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, and played its Maarschalkerweerd organ in Mahler's Second and Eighth Symphonies under Willem Mengelberg at the 1920 Mahler Festival.
As a conductor, Robert led the Haarlem men's choir Kunst door oefening from 1907 to 1922. He succeeded his father as conductor of the Haarlem Toonkunst Choir in 1914 and conducted the 1921 premiere of Andriessen's L'histoire de l'enfant de Dieu. He was also second conductor of the Amsterdam division choir of the Society for the Promotion of Music, assisting Mengelberg, and briefly accepted the conductorship of Liedertafel Amstels Werkman in Amsterdam. He resigned as Haarlem city organist in 1921 and emigrated to the United States in 1922.
In the United States, Robert initially assisted the New York Schola Cantorum under Kurt Schindler. In 1923 he became organist and choir director at Holy Trinity Church in Brooklyn, New York, where he directed concerts and supervised the replacement of the church's 1899 organ with a four-manual Ernest Skinner instrument. He gave numerous lunchtime recitals there. In 1924 he was appointed to lead the organ class at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, where he also taught piano, directed the Peabody Conservatory Chorus, and taught at the conservatory's international summer courses. His pupils included Virgil Fox, who succeeded him as head of the organ department.
From 1926 to 1937 Robert conducted the Summit Choral Club in Summit, New Jersey, developing it into a widely respected ensemble that gave many concerts and made radio recordings. Its repertoire included a cappella music from Josquin des Prez, Palestrina, Sweelinck and Gesualdo to Brahms, Elgar and Bartók, as well as arrangements of folk songs. In 1937 he became conductor of the Morristown Choral Society in New Jersey, but conducted only one concert before his death.