Robert Edward Dunkin

1956 -

Robert Dunkin, conductor, and versatile brass and accomplished trumpet performer, has taught music privately since 1980 and in schools for sixteen years. He has also worked as an electronic technician and as a church musician.

Robert was born in Kansas City, Missouri, and raised near Denver, Colorado, in Brighton. One of four children born to Donald Edward and Beverly Juanita McGowen Dunkin, he and his siblings grew up in a musical family where music was a central activity. His father, a family practice physician and surgeon, played clarinet and directed a church choir, and his mother, a church pianist and organist, also gave piano lessons. All of the children learned to play instruments, and singing was a frequent activity in the home.

Robert started trumpet lessons in the eighth grade, played in the Brighton high school summer marching band, and then continued lessons on trumpet and played in the band under William Baker at Campion Academy for four years. He later observed that "Bill Baker made a trumpet player out of me and provided a quality band program that was very inspiring."

Following graduation from CA, he enrolled at Union College to pursue a degree in music education with a major in trumpet. While there he studied trumpet under Ellis Olson at UC and Dennis Schneider at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. All during his time at the college he was the principal and solo player in his section in the band, under the direction of Dan Shultz and Frances Wada, and served as an officer in that group. He later wrote about his time as a student in the music department:

My experiences at UC with band under Dan Shultz, choir under Lynn Wickham, and orchestra under Ellis Olson, confirmed my desire for a career in music education. I will always treasure the memory of the camaraderie we had in those days, making music together and forming friendships that have lasted a lifetime.

Following graduation in 1980, Dunkin taught at Mile High Academy in Denver; Helen Hyatt Elementary School in Lincoln, Nebraska; Brighton Adventist Academy; and at Campion Academy in the fall semester of the 2002-2003 school year. He is presently teaching at BAA, a position he has held for a total of twelve years. He directed the band at Adventist Christian School in Greeley from 2006 to 2009, while teaching at BAA, and this school year is also directing the band at Vista Ridge Academy, formerly Boulder Junior Academy, in Erie, Colorado.

He is active as a performer, playing trumpet, tuba, and trombone as needed in civic ensembles and churches. From 1990 to 2000, he played trumpet in the annual production of Handel's Messiah at the Central Presbyterian Church in Denver, under the direction of Douglas Macomber.

ds/2009

Source: Information provided by Robert Dunkin, September 2009.