Music – Robert Styron

About the Modern A Cappella

Robert Styron leverages his graduate degree in music education to serve as a resident artist at the Hymel School of Music in Gretna, Louisiana, and as a talented music specialist with Jefferson Parish Public Schools in New Orleans. A lover of music, Robert Styron also performs in several local bands and makes music education presentations, such as “Jazz Improvisation and Contemporary A Cappella.”

The “a cappella” is a musical term that refers to a piece performed solely by a vocalist or vocal group, with no instrumental accompaniment or another musical backing. Translated as “in the manner of the chapel,” this style of performance traces its origins back to the times of Renaissance polyphony and Baroque concertato.

In the early 20th century, a cappella began to find popularity beyond religious. Modern a cappella groups began with the founding of the Northwestern A Cappella Choir and the St. Olaf College Choir. Numerous colleges took up the tradition and a cappella soon began to evolve into distinct mainstream movements, including barbershop and doo-wop. While doo-wop music sometimes features musical accompaniments, both sub-genres typically feature a lead vocalist backed by three or four vocal harmony parts.

While a cappella persists as a popular activity at schools and universities around the world, several pieces have enjoyed considerable success as pop songs, including “Mbube” by Solomon Linda, better known in the United States as “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”, “Homeless” by Paul Simon and Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and most successfully, Bobby McFerrin’s “Don’t Worry Be Happy.” The latter, released in 1988, became the first a cappella song to reach No. 1 on the United States Billboard charts, a position the song held for two weeks.

The Basics of Ethnomusicology

A graduate of the University of Colorado at Boulder with a master of arts in music education, Robert Styron has provided instruction in multiple musical disciplines and fields and directed choir activities at a number of learning institutions. He is a current resident artist of the Hymel School of Music in Greater New Orleans, Louisiana. One of Robert Styron’s professional and academic interests is ethnomusicology.

Briefly defined, ethnomusicology is a field of musical study that concentrates on the sociocultural elements and implications of music. Regarding music as a human process, the field investigates various types of music to determine what they mean to those who create and play them and those who listen to them.

Ethnomusicologists come to this highly interdisciplinary field from backgrounds that range from musical performance and theory to cultural anthropology and folklore. Although they use different methods and focus on different areas of study, they universally approach music with a global perspective and examine it within a broad social and cultural context.

High-Energy Live Music from The Strays

A vocal music teacher with several decades of experience, Robert Styron most recently served as director of vocal music for the Denver School of the Arts. In the past, Robert Styron served as a conductor with the Rocky Mountain Children’s Choir and as a keyboardist with The Strays, a popular New Orleans cover band.

A fun, energetic five-piece band, The Strays play a variety of covers ranging from classic rock to current Top 40 hits. The band’s family-friendly setlists have helped them become one of New Orleans’ most sought bands for weddings, parties, private events, and nightclubs. In addition to powerful vocals from lead singer Michael Aaron, the group features veterans of the rock music scene of the 1980s and early 1990s who are committed to providing the best live entertainment in southern Louisiana.

In the past, The Strays have played all-ages shows at the St. Rosalie Italian Festival and the Fishing for the Girls fishing tournament and breast cancer benefit, as well as 21+ shows at Vinnie’s Sports Bar and Grill and Hurricane’s.

The ACDA’s Choral Journal for Choral Professionals

A resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, Robert Styron is an experienced musician and music educator. Robert Styron served as the director of vocal music at the Denver School of Arts from 2004 to 2018 and has received many accolades throughout his career, including the 2018 Colorado State Most Outstanding Musical award. Mr. Styron is a member of the American Choral Directors Association (ACDA).

ACDA’s Choral Journal has served as a valuable resource for choral professionals since 1959, and is available in 44 countries and circulated among 20,000 subscribers. Each volume of the journal contains 11 issues that are published from August to June/July. The journal is also accessible through several online databases including JSTOR, ProQuest, and the EBSCO music index.

Each issue of the Choral Journal features a range of content including peer-reviewed scholarly articles, editorials, reviews of books and recorded choral works, and practical ideas and advice for choral conductors. A preview of each year’s national or divisional conferences is also provided in the January and February issues of the journal.