Robert Fish has been a professional performer, educator, arranger, and consultant since 1995. He began his career teaching percussion lessons and ensembles at various schools throughout his hometown of Houston, TX while pursuing undergraduate study at the University of Houston Moores School of Music. While at UH, he gave world premieres of new solo and ensemble compositions, performed under renowned conductors with the Texas Music Festival, toured with the UH Afro-Cuban Ensemble, and acted as principal percussionist for the UH Wind Ensemble’s 1998 GRAMMY-semifinalist recording Holst: The Planets; Copland: Appalachian Spring.

​

To further explore education and leadership philosophy and methodology, Mr. Fish moved to the mountains of Western North Carolina in 2000 to add a second undergraduate major in Experiential Education at Brevard College—where he also completed his primary undergraduate major in music with honors as co-valedictorian in 2003. After teaching and performing for several years, he began graduate study as a Chancellor’s Fellow at Appalachian State University. There, he recorded the world premiere of Angels by avant-garde composer Stuart Saunders Smith and won the Appalachian Concerto Competition on his way to earning the Master of Music Degree in Percussion Performance. Additionally, he was awarded a graduate research grant to pursue Taiko (Japanese-style drumming) study with wadaiko artist Art Lee in Japan, and he worked for seven years with with high-risk and adjudicated youth as the creator and director the southern Appalachian region’s only Taiko ensemble.

Mr. Fish ultimately returned to Texas in 2012 to realize his educational vision as an assistant band director and secondary percussion director. Over the past decade, he developed his career with several successful band programs—most notably as Assistant Band Director and Percussion Director for the Dawson High School cluster in Pearland, TX. His ensembles and students have earned numerous achievements, including BOA Regional Finalist (10th), UIL Honor Band Finalist (4th), UIL 6A State Marching Contest (16th), Texas All-State Band, National Concert Band Festival, marching percussion caption awards, and percussion ensemble festival placements—including as winners of both the high school and junior high divisions of the Shadow Creek Percussion Festival in the same year.

Mr. Fish is passionate about the growth and development of the whole person through music performance practice. He is a member of the Percussive Arts Society, the Texas Music Educators Association, the Association for Experiential Education, and the Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honors Society, and he is an Educational Artist for Remo drum heads and Grover Pro Percussion.​