About Me

Robert Hamilton is an award-winning composer, music theorist, and organist. A native of Toronto, ON, Rob is currently a PhD candidate in Music Theory at the Eastman School of Music. Rob holds an MA in Music Theory from Eastman and a BMus in Organ Performance from McGill University.

As a composer, Rob only got started as recently as 2024. In the short time since, he has already racked up several competition prizes, including first place in the Hadfield Competition of Jesus College, Cambridge. He writes primarily sacred choral music, though he has recently begun writing more widely, including for organ and classical guitar.

Rob’s compositional style is heavily influenced by his upbringing (and subsequent scholarly specialization) in the Anglican choral tradition. This includes especially composers like Herbert Howells, John Joubert, and Kenneth Leighton. There is also some Messiaen in there, particularly when writing for organ.

As a music theorist, Rob specializes in twentieth-century tonal music. Rob’s dissertation project, “Scale Schemas and the Music of Herbert Howells,” proposes a new approach to scales and modes that treats them explicitly as perceptual objects. Rob has presented at several national and regional conferences on the music of Howells, Messiaen, Shostakovich, and more, and on topics from schema theory to the locrian mode.

A passionate and engaging teacher, Rob was the recipient of Eastman’s Teaching Assistant Prize in 2023. He has taught the entire undergraduate theory and aural skills curriculum, as well as graduate review. He also designed and taught an upper-level undergraduate elective, “Tonal Music After 1900.”

As an organist, Rob has played solo concerts in Toronto and Montreal, and has placed in several competitions. He has studied under Hans-Ola Ericsson and John Tuttle.

Rob is currently director of music and organist at St. Anne’s Episcopal Church in Reston, VA, where he directs the 20-voice adult choir as well as the newly-formed children’s choir. He has served previously at several other churches, including as organ scholar and co-interim director of music at Christ Church Cathedral, Montreal.