Robert Nordman

E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professor of Music Education (Emeritus)
Director, E. Desmond Lee Fine Arts Education Collaborative

Robert W. Nordman has been a music educator for more than 53 years. In St. Louis, he was director of bands and orchestras at Southwest High School where he also taught music history, music theory and, with Ms. Leontone Meyer, music theatre. He was supervisor of music education for the Saint Louis Public Schools from 1983 to 2005. He holds Bachelor and Masters degrees in music from the University of Northern Iowa and the St. Louis Institute of Music. His award winning symphonic bands, orchestras and jazz bands appeared in Iowa, Minnesota, South Dakota, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Chicago, New Orleans, New York City and Washington, D.C.

Nordman is a member of the Music Educators National Conference, the International Jazz Education Network, the National Band Association, and the Missouri Music Educators Association. He is past national president of the Urban Music Educators Association and a former board member of the Metropolitan Music Educators Association. Nordman has served on advisory boards for the Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra, Opera Theatre of Saint Louis, Music for Lifelong Achievement at the Sheldon, the Whitaker Music Education Collaborative and the E. Desmond Lee Fine Arts Education Collaborative. He has been a clinician for the Music Educators National Conference, the Texas Music Educators Conference, the Southwestern Music Conference in Dallas, and other professional conferences. He has adjudicated concert bands, marching bands, solos and small ensembles in several states.

In 1996 he received the "Administrator of the Year" award from the Missouri Music Educators Association. Nordman has been a guest conductor for several school districts and festivals, including the Honors Bands of both the Metro and Suburban Music Educators Associations, the Southwestern Illinois Music Festival, and the E. Desmond Lee Fine Arts Collaborative Festival Band at the Touhill Performing Arts Center. He has taught at Harris-Stowe State College and during the summer of 2005 he was on the faculty for the NEH Institute, Jazz as American Culture, at Washington University. For 2005-2006 he served as Visiting Associate Professor of Music and Director of the Symphonic Band at UMSL. One June 1, 2006, he became the E. Desmond Lee Endowed Professor of Music Education and Director of the E. Desmond Lee Fine Arts Education Collaborative, a joint appointment with the College of Fine Arts and Communication and the College of Education. In 2011 Nordman was elected to the Missouri Music Educators Association Hall of Fame.

Bob and Carol have three adult children--Diane (husband Joe Fitzsimmons), Susan, and Scott (wife Kris)--and four grandchildren--Kati, Sara, Joe and Liz.