Florida native to take over Shepherd University's music department

Robert Tudor has chaired the division of music at Jacksonville University since 2006

June 10, 2012|By RICHARD F. BELISLE | richardb@herald-mail.com

Tudor

SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. — Robert Tudor, professor of music at Jacksonville (Fla.) University, will take over Shepherd University’s music department next month.

Tudor, a Florida native who specializes in voice, will replace Mark McCoy as the department’s chairman.

McCoy resigned in July 2011 to take a job as music department chair at DePauw University in Greencastle, Ind.

He left a department with 140 music majors, including several in the master’s program, and a staff of 40 full- and part-time faculty members. McCoy, a Shepherd graduate, returned to the university as department chair in 1999.

Tudor, 41, has chaired the division of music at Jacksonville University since 2006. He also served as the school’s director of music theater and opera. He performs professionally in voice and guitar in opera, classical and Renaissance music, musical theater and jazz. Twice a year, he performs as a guest artist in productions in Helena, Mont.

Tudor’s hobby is playing and singing bluegrass and Celtic music. He is an avid runner, covering an average of 20 miles a week, he said.

“But my bread and butter is singing and teaching, choir and stage directing,” he said.

Richard Helldobler, vice president for academic affairs, said Tudor “understands public higher education in a liberal-arts context. Performance is key to the kind of work we do here at Shepherd. We’re not a conservatory. We want our students prepared for music, but grounded in liberal arts.”

He called Tudor “an arts administrator with an impressive and extensive list of music, theater and opera accomplishments as a performer, director, educator and clinician.”

Tudor has some familiarity with Shepherd, having been an adjunct voice instructor, stage and choir director in the 2002-03 academic year.

He earned a bachelor’s degree in music from Stetson University in Deland, Fla.; a master’s degree in voice performance from the University of Miami; and a doctorate in musical arts in vocal performance from the University of Maryland.

He was attracted to Shepherd University for several reasons, he said. It’s a bigger campus than Jacksonville University, and he’s familiar with and likes the area. His father lives in Columbia, Md.
Tudor and his partner, Bobb Robinson, are renting a house in nearby Sharpsburg.

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