Robert Jager

Robert Jager was born in Binghamton, New York (1939), and is a graduate of The University of Michigan. For four years he served as the Staff Arranger at the Armed Forces School of Music while a member of the United States Navy. Currently, he is Professor of Music, and Coordinator of Academic Studies in the Department of Music and Art at Tennessee Technological University in Cookeville, Tennessee.

Jager is a widely commissioned and performed composer with some 115 published works to his credit, including compositions for band, chorus, orchestra, and various chamber ensembles. He has received commissions from some of the finest performing organizations in the world, including the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra, the Republic of China Band Association, all of the Washington based service bands, bands and/or alumni groups from the universities of Minot, Michigan, Illinois, Nebraska, Arkansas, Nebraska Wesleyan, Purdue and Butler. In addition, he has received grants from Meet The Composer, and the Tennessee Arts Commission.

He has conducted and lectured throughout the United States, Canada, Europe, Japan, and the Republic of China. In addition, his music has been performed by the National Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony, the Charlotte Symphony, the Virginia Symphony, Bryan Symphony Orchestra of Tennessee, and the Minot (ND) Symphony

He has won a number of awards for his music, including being the only three time winner of the American Bandmasters Association's OSTWALD AWARD. He is a two time winner of the National School Orchestra Association's ROTH AWARD: RECEIVED THE Kappa Kappa Psi's DISTINGUISHED SERVICE TO MUSIC MEDAL in Composition (1973); the 1975 FRIENDS OF HARVEY GAUL bicentennial competition; the 1976 American School Band Director's Association's VOLKWEIN AWARD; the National Band Association's CITATION OF EXCELLENCE (1978); the ORPHEUS AWARD from Phi Mu. Alpha Sinfonia (1980); the CITATION WITH DISTINCTION from the University of Michigan Band Alumni Association in 1985. In 1986, he received a MacDowell Colony Fellowship to compose at the Colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire. He received the INDIVIDUAL ARTIST FELLOWSHIP in Composition from the Tennessee Arts Commission in 1996, and in 1998 was selected to receive Tennessee Tech University's highest faculty award, the CAPLENOR FACULTY RESEARCH AWARD. He is the first faculty member in the arts to receive this annual award.

He is a member of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), the American Bandmasters Association, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Kappa Kappa Psi, and an "Honorary Member" of the Women Band Director's National Association.