Robert Debbaut

Critics have called Robert Debbaut "a world-class conductor" (Salt Lake Tribune) possessing "an incisiveness verging on the dance" (Kansas City Star) and "a conductor with the force of emotions in his direction." (Prensa Libre Guatemala).

Dr. Debbaut has led orchestras and opera companies in the United States as well as in Central and North America, Asia and Europe. Included among those orchestras are the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, Chicago Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra, Filharmonia Sudecka, Hartford Symphony, International Symphony Orchestra (Canada), Kharkiv Philharmonic (Ukraine), Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, National Symphony of Guatemala, North Bohemian Philharmonic, Pärnu Linnaorchester (Estonia),, Great Novgorod Chamber Orchestra, Saint Petersburg Classic Orchestra, San Juan Symphony, Shanghai Conservatory Orchestra, Utah Opera, Utah Symphony and the Yaroslavl Symphony Orchestra among many others.

Robert Debbaut holds the degree Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from the University of Michigan as well as degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City Conservatory and Missouri State University. At the Tanglewood Music Center he was the first recipient of the Maurice Abravanel Award and among the last students to study with Leonard Bernstein. His teachers and mentors include Neeme Järvi, Helmuth Rilling, the late Maurice Abravanel and the late Gustav Meier.