Robert Nordling’s conducting has been characterized as “emphatic”, “dramatic”, and “vivid” with a “fresh and airy quality and a certain elegance” (San Francisco Chronicle). Robert serves as the Music Director of the Bandung Philharmonic Orchestra (Indonesia), the Baroque on Beaver Island Music Festival (Northern Michigan) the Lake Forest Civic Orchestra (Chicago) and the Shoreline Music Society (Michigan). He has appeared with the Grand Rapids Symphony, the Orquestra Juvenal de Mar del Plata (Argentina), the Masterworks Festival Orchestra and Chorus, Nusantara Symphony (Jakarta, Indonesia) the Great Lakes Chamber Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute Orchestra, the Cedardell Opera Festival Orchestra, and chamber orchestras in Chicago, San Francisco and England. Robert also founded and was the music director of the Bay Chamber Symphony Orchestra (San Francisco).

2019-2020 season included performances of Beethoven Symphony 9, Borodin Symphony 2, Mahler Songs of a Wayfarer, Sivan Eldar A Thousand Tongues, Dvorak Symphony 9,  Grieg Piano Concerto and Stravinsky L’Histoire du Soldat. 

Nordling received a 2019 Fulbright Scholarship in partnership with the Bandung Philharmonic for work to develop conducting talent in Indonesia. He will present an extended Conducting workshop in November 2019. In July of 2020 he presented the summer music festival Baroque on Beaver - ReImagined as a virtually presented festival. In January 2021, Nordling curated the Bandung Philharmonic Chamber Music Festival and in February 2021, Nordling will present a live, virtual conducting Master Class hosted by the Bandung Philharmonic.

In Summer 2021 Nordling conducted his 12th Season as Music Director fo the Baroque on Beaver Island Summer Festival. The festival included performances of the Faure Requiem, Beethoven Symphony 2, Michael Torke’s Concerto for Marimba Mojave with soloist Peter Ferry, Griffes’ Poem for Flute and Orchestra with soloist Anthony Trionfo, Bach Cantata 86, Debussy Danses Sacree et Profane with soloist Beth Colpean, Piazzola Tangazo, Marquez Danzon No. 4 and Oscher Barroqueana Venezolana No. 3.

Nordling continues his commitment to new music and has commissioned works by Tony Manfredonia and Iwan Gunawan (Antewacana for gamelan and orchestra).

A sought out clinician and educator, Robert performs orchestra clinics, music educational workshops and master classes in schools in the USA and abroad. He leads the Bandung Philharmonic Conducting Fellows program which trains young Indonesian conductors in Master Classe and performance. He has also served on the music faculty of the Calvin College Music Department and Trinity International University where he conducted the orchestras and taught in the areas of music history, music appreciation and conducting.

 A native of New Jersey, Robert began his early studies on violin with Stephen Clapp and Paul Zukovsky. Following his undergraduate study at the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music, he was awarded conducting fellowships to the Los Angeles Philharmonic Institute where he worked with Leonard Bernstein, Michael Tilson Thomas, Herbert Blomstedt and Erich Leinsdorf. He also received conducting fellowships from the Oregon Bach Festival to work with Helmuth Rilling and the Cedardell Opera Festival to work with Boris Goldovsky.

 Robert is also an active composer and arranger based in Michigan. His interests include Arthurian literature, English poetry, science fiction, Indian food, furniture-making, Welsh Terriers, Tom Waits, Cherith Nordling and espresso coffee.