Dr. Robert Halseth is Director of Bands and Professor of Conducting at California State University, Sacramento, where he heads the instrumental conducting program, conducts the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, and is the founder and co-clinician of the Summer Wind Conducting Workshop. He also serves as Conductor and Artistic Director of the Sierra Nevada Wind Orchestra, one of northern California’s premiere wind ensembles.

He holds two music degrees from California State University, Fresno, and a doctorate from the University of Northern Colorado, where his primary professor was Eugene Migliaro Corporon. He has conducted instrumental music at all levels -- elementary through professional -- including more than a hundred honor bands in the United States and abroad. Previous university faculty positions include Carroll College (Wisconsin) and University of the Pacific (Stockton, California).

Dr. Halseth has appeared in some of the world’s premiere concert halls, including the Mondavi Center, C. Y. Stephens Auditorium, Sydney Opera House, Atherton Auditorium and Carnegie Hall. He has led/adjudicated performances in 16 states, plus abroad in Australia, Canada, England, Guam, Singapore, and Thailand. In February, 2011, the California Band Directors Association presented him their highest honor: the CBDA Lifetime Achievement Award.

During his 40 years as a professional bass trombonist, he held memberships in the National Repertory Orchestra, San Diego Symphony, and Bay Bones, and performed with such notables as Bobby McFerrin, Manhattan Transfer, Cab Calloway, Johnny Mathis, Beverly Sills, Norman Treigle, and Pierre Fournier, and under the batons of Paul Vermel, Zoltan Rozsnyai, Piero Gamba, Walter Herbert, Merle Evans, Shari Lewis and Arthur Fiedler.

Professional memberships include WASBE, Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Pi Kappa Lambda, CBDA, and he is a Past President of the Western Division of the College Band Directors National Association. The proud father of 4 children, 2 step-children, and 3 grandchildren, he and his wife, Helen, currently reside in Gold River, CA.