Dr. Robert Belser

Robert Belser, Professor of Music, is the Director of Bands at the University of Wyoming and conductor of the UW Wind Symphony and Community Concert Band.

A native of Lee’s Summit, Missouri, Bob began his musical training on trumpet then on euphonium.  He earned the Bachelor of Music Education degree from Central Missouri State University (now the University of Central Missouri) and taught public school instrumental and choral music in central Missouri.  Belser served as a graduate teaching assistant at the University of Illinois where he studied with Harry Begian, Gary Smith, and Dan Perantoni, and earned the Master of Science in Music Education degree.  He was Assistant Director of Bands at Eastern Kentucky University and served as Director of Bands at Southwestern Oklahoma State University, directing the concert band, athletic bands, and teaching music education and music appreciation courses.   Bob was awarded the Doctor of Musical Arts in Conducting from The University of Iowa where he was a student of Myron Welch.  His conducting and teaching has also been greatly influenced through conducting symposia with Craig Kirchhoff, John Paynter, and Mallory Thompson.

Belser is in demand as a clinician and conductor throughout the country, Canada, and Western Europe.  Under his baton, the UW Wind Symphony brings masterworks and innovative repertory to campus audiences, tours in outreach performances in the Rocky Mountain region, has performed for the prestigious Western/Northwestern Division conference of College Band Directors National Association in 2000, and again in 2012.  He and the UW Wind Symphony are advocates for new music for winds and have been praised for the “fearless enthusiasm the group seems to put into its modern music repertoire.”  Belser is also the conductor of the popular Wyoming Ambassadors of Music Concert Band, and Tour Director for their bi-annual tours of Europe.  He is a contributing author for chapters for the “Teaching Musicianship Through Performance in Band” series of texts.  His research on original band literature associated with The Goldman Band of New York City has been used in band history courses at several universities, and The Goldman Band also used Belser’s research for their 75^th Anniversary season of performances.  In his leadership of the UW Bands, the program has grown to include three concert bands, annual chamber concert series of a faculty-student wind ensemble, the 180-strong Western Thunder Marching Band, and two UW Pep Bands, as well as maintaining and growing a loyal donor base for the band program.  Belser serves nationally as the President of the Northwest Division of College Band Directors National Conference.  He is the Director of the Laramie Municipal Band presenting a summer concert-in-the-park series of 7 concerts each year, served for 8 years as a Trustee on the Albany County District 1 School Board, and continues to serve as music minister at his church.

In addition to conducting, Bob also teaches the music education courses of Instrumentation and Arranging, Introduction to Musical Life, Brass Methods, Form and Analysis, plus graduate conducting and literature courses.  Belser serves on numerous department and college committees.  He was awarded the prestigious John P. “Jack” Ellbogen Award for Meritorious Classroom teaching in 2000, and has served multiple times as a teaching excellence panelist for the UW Center for Teaching and Learning.  He was honored with the 2001 “Warming the Chill” Award for promoting and maintaining positive classroom teaching in an atmosphere of respect for diversity.  His colleagues in Wyoming honored Dr. Belser by naming him the 2004 Bandmaster of the Year, awarded by Phi Beta Mu, and he was named to the Lee’s Summit High School Hall of Fame for 2004.  In 2008, Belser was named “Top Prof” at the University of Wyoming, and twice named a Top 10 Teacher in the College of Arts and Sciences.  He was also awarded the 2009 Distinguished Alumnus, nominated by the Department of Music, at his alma mater, the University of Central Missouri.