CRABB, R. PAUL (b. 1954)

Composer R. Paul Crabb (b. July 14, 1954), is the Director of Choral Activities at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Paul grew up in a musical family in central Kansas. His mother taught piano, his father played trumpet his whole life, and both of his sisters and he majored in music in college. He earned an undergraduate degree in Elementary and Secondary Music Education at Bethel College (Kansas), an M.M. in Vocal Performance from Wichita State University and received his Ph.D. in Choral Music Education from Florida State University. His ensembles have performed at state and regional conventions and have traveled extensively, performing in Mexico, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Russia, Bulgaria and Australia.

 

Crabb was invited to serve as assistant conductor at the Russian/American Choral Symposium for two years where his choir was invited as the resident American choir at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1998-99, he took a one year sabbatical leave to serve as a visiting professor in Salzburg, Austria, where he also continued his research on a 16th century Austro-German composer, Georg Prenner, and worked with the choir of the Salzburg Cathedral. During Summer 2001, Crabb studied 16th-century polyphony with the renowned Peter Phillips in Rimini, Italy. More recently, he served as the first American Guest Visiting Choral Professor at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, Hungary. In 2006, teaching and conducting engagements took Dr. Crabb to Italy, Slovakia, Hungary and Taiwan. In 2007, he lectured at the University of Viennas Music of the Performing Arts Division as the first American to speak in the choral department of this prestigious institution.

 

Professor Crabb has received several distinctions for his teaching: in 1997, he was awarded the Educator of the Year award at Truman State University; in 1998, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching honored Crabb as the Missouri Professor of the Year and in 2003, Truman State University awarded him its most prestigious teaching award, the Walker and Doris Allen Fellowship. Dr. Crabb is active as a clinician and conductor for district, regional and all-state choirs. His published research has appeared in the MENC research journal, Update, and Choral Journal. He has also published editions of choral music with Alliance Publications, Inc.