Robert Sears

Bio

Dr. Robert Sears enjoys an active career balancing his love of teaching and performing as both a classical and jazz musician. He joins the faculty at West Virginia University  as the Assistant Professor of Trumpet. Dr. Sears previously held teaching positions at Millikin University, Illinois State University, Illinois Wesleyan University, and the University of Illinois Springfield.

Previous performance engagements include second trumpet in the Millikin-Decatur Symphony Orchestra (2019-2020), member of Sycamore Brass (2018-2020), founding member of the Afro-Caribbean Jazz Collective and Iron Post Jazz Orchestra, and substitute with the Wheeling Symphony Orchestra, Heartland Festival Orchestra, Illinois Symphony Orchestra, Champaign-Urbana Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia da Camera Chamber Orchestra, and Urbana Pops Orchestra. Dr. Sears has been a featured soloist with Millikin University’s Wind Ensemble (2019), Illinois Wesleyan University’s Wind Ensemble (2018), the University of Illinois Summer Band (2017 and 2016), and Brigham Young University-Idaho’s Symphony Band at the 2014 CBDNA conference in Reno, Nevada with the BYU-Idaho Faculty Brass Quintet. Dr. Sears has also performed alongside jazz artists Chip Stephens, Glenn Wilson, Jeff Halsey, Mark Tonelli, Jim Pugh, John Clayton, Ernie Watts, and Doc Severinsen. In both 2019 and 2018, he was a featured soloist and clinician at Illinois Wesleyan University’s Jazz Festival, and in 2021 and 2019 he arranged and recorded horn section parts for various EP releases with gospel, R&B, and soul artist Julius Adams.

Dr. Sears holds a  B.M. in Music Education from Brigham Young University-Idaho, M.M. in Trumpet Performance and Literature from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and D.M.A. in Jazz Performance, with a cognate in Classical Performance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. His primary trumpet instructors include Tito Carrillo, Charles Daval, Ronald Romm, Dr. Ryan Nielsen, Dr. K. Newell Dayley, and David Evans.