Robert Ballinger is active as conductor, pianist (solo, chamber, accompanist/coach), lecturer, adjudicator and violist. A graduate of DeVilbiss H.S., he attended the University of Miami (Fla.), and holds degrees from the University of Toledo (cum laude) and Northwestern University, where he was inducted into Pi Kappa Lambda, the national musical honorary society, with further post-graduate work done at the University of Michigan.
In his capacity as Lecturer at the University of Toledo he serves as Director of The Opera Workshop, Staff Accompanist, Instructor of Accompanying and classroom presenter in Music History and Literature and Music Theory. Additionally, he is in his ninth season as Music Director/Conductor of the Sylvania (formerly JCC) Community Orchestra.
Mr. Ballinger's teachers have included Frederick Fennell, Robert Porter, Frederick Ockwell and Bernard Rubenstein (conducting), as well as Helen Blanchard, Rosalina Sackstein, Paul Schoenfield, Wanda Paul, John Browning and Theodore Lettvin (piano). Described as "both fiery and sensitive; equally comfortable in widely divergent styles," he has performed throughout the Midwest, Florida, Central and South America, and is a member of the College Musical Society and The Conductors’ Guild.