Robert’s knowledge and his deep commitment to classical vocal traditions began with his studies under the late Lav Vrbanic, 26 years Chairman of the vocal department at the Zagreb Academy of Music, one of the world’s premiere music schools. Professor Vrbanic was widely regarded in Europe as one of a very few top vocal teachers in the world.
After retiring from the Academy, Professor Vrbanic served five years on the faculty of the New England Conservatory in Boston by invitation of the well-known American composer Gunther Schuller, then President of NEC. It was there that Robert studied for three years under Vrbanic’s masterful tutelage.
Those three years were unusually productive. Mr. Vrbanic was able to focus strictly on improving Robert’s vocal function and his understanding of it, since Robert could read new music flawlessly at first sight. Robert already had a minor in voice and excellent Italian, French, and German diction. Having previously earned a B.A. in Music with a major in violin, sight reading vocal music accurately was very easy for Robert.
Robert's musical tastes and experience are widely spread across multiple genres. He occasionally performs as a jazz singer, with great expertise in scat as well as improvised instrumental jazz. He also indulges in other genres on both trumpet and violin. His favorite performance genres include blues, R&B, and Latin in addition to classical.
Robert has a Master of Music performance degree in Choral Conducting from the University of Florida, Gainesville. He is an expert choral conductor with well over two decades of experience in teaching voice and directing choirs.
He has been teaching voice in Charlotte since 2006.
The singer in the adjacent clip is a professional who does regular country style gigs accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. When he first began with Robert he was very fearful that he might end up sounding too classical. Two and a half years later in the summer of 2017, his fears of sounding too classical are completely gone, his pitch is excellent, and his voice sounds much more consistently full, rich, clear, free and effortless in all ranges, including the high notes.
The adjacent clip is of a seventeen-year-old high school student. She had come to Robert with a breathy low range that didn't carry well. She tended to sing off pitch on the high notes and sounded strained in that range. Her low notes were fuzzy, foggy and indistinct. However, she quickly caught on to greatly improved technique for a more solid, resonant sound down low as is easily observed at the end of her blues riff coming down from a high note.
The adjacent audio sample is a recording of a choir Robert founded and directed for ten years, the Cantus Angelicus Choral Society. The Latin title, O Quam Gloriosum, means "Oh, How Glorious". It's from the high renaissance, written by Tomás Luís de Victoria. Note the purity of the harmony and that the end is precisely at the same pitch as the beginning after 2 min, 9 sec of unaccompanied singing. Mr. Wendell's choir published two successful CDs, was invited to sing in a European choral festival, flew to Vienna and toured Hungary in the early summer of 2001.
The adjacent sound clip is of instructor Robert Wendell at 28 years of age during a lesson with Lav Vrbanic at New England Conservatory. For those interested in classical repertoire, Robert has excellent Italian, French, and German diction and has been to Europe many times. His sensitivity to the musical expression of textual meaning that reinforces and amplifies it to produce a truly high artistic result is a legacy from his teacher, Lav Vrbanic, for which Robert is forever grateful.
This student studied with Robert for about two years. This excerpt is from one of his own compositions, the title piece from an album he self-produced in his own studio. The harmony parts are his own voice overdubbed multiple times.