The holidays are approaching and the back wall of Phil Robb’s
chorus room is covered with booking orders for his award-winning
Chamber Singers.
The holidays are approaching and the back wall of Phil Robb’s chorus room is covered with booking orders for his award-winning Chamber Singers.
The two dozen Gilroy High School students performed 10 times during the past week and will be busy singing carols at various venues throughout Gilroy right up until Christmas, in addition to preparing for their upcoming winter concert Dec. 18 and 19.
Phil Robb’s eyes swept the back wall of his room, taking in not only the booking orders, but also the 24 banners that commemorate each year he has directed the choir at GHS. Each banner displays the various awards, photographs and memorabilia Robb’s choir has collected during the years as they traveled the globe.
His tie was patterned with musical notes and he spoke in a voice that filled the cavernous room. When he paused, he laughed at the crickets chirping in the background from their hiding spots around the room.
“It’s all part of the music,” he said. Robb, 55, believes everyone has the ability to sing beautifully, like his students, and has cultivated the voices of 150 singers this year in his five choirs. After directing the GHS choirs for almost half his life, he still finds the most challenging part of his job to be choosing the right repertoire for the right situation. But judging by the success of his program, he always manages.
” ‘Oh my God,’ was all I could say when I first saw them (the choir),” GHS Principal James Maxwell said. “Phil surpasses himself every year. They are probably the most famous part of our school.”
A piece of paper taped up in Robb’s office reads “a little imagination is a lot more important than a lot of knowledge.” Although he can’t remember who first said the words he refers to every day, he lives by this quote, infusing sparks of creativity and imagination to spice up his regular routine. He has taken up teaching a piano class this year, a “break from the norm,” he said.
In 1989, Robb took his first group of students to Gilroy’s sister city, Takko-Machi, Japan. Since then, he has taken the Chamber Singers on five additional trips. After six successful visits, Robb is ready to try somewhere new.
“There are other places to go,” he said, eager to show his students a different part of the world. “They represent the U.S. beautifully and are amazing diplomats. They are willing to try everything.”
William Hoshida, a GHS junior and member of the Chamber Singers, joined Robb last year for the choir’s 10-day trip to Takko-Machi. They lived with Japanese families and performed at a variety of venues.
“It was a really good experience,” Hoshida said. “He (Robb) teaches us how to really connect with an audience. We learn to be a musician, not just a singer.”
“We love Mr. Robb!” Hoshida and fellow Chamber Singer, Rebecca Butkivich, chimed in. Both plan to pursue their love for singing in college and agreed that Robb has made their experience with singing in high school “memorable.”
Like his own students, Robb sang in his high school’s choir. Claiming he was “tricked” by his mother into joining the choir, he said she saw his potential even when he did not.
From the very start, his parents encouraged musical education and he sang with the San Francisco Boys Chorus as a child and traveled with the San Francisco Opera Company.
“To use your music to travel is a natural thing,” he said. He played the trumpet in junior high and eventually went on to earn his Bachelor’s degree in music from Westmont College in Santa Barbara.
Since 1984, he hasn’t strayed far from GHS because of the “phenomenal fine arts program here,” he said. The quality of his students’ performances has been recognized for its excellence throughout the state.
“I want them to touch people with their music,” he said. “This time of year, music is so important.”
“I don’t think there’s a better was of saying Merry Christmas than with such beautiful music,” said George Chiala, chairman of the Saint Louise Regional Hospital Foundation, of the choir’s performance at Tuesday night’s Tree of Light Celebration.
Proud of his singers, Robb gestured to the band room.
“All those instruments are man made,” he said. “I work with the only instrument created by God.”
