Sacramento State professor Robert Halseth was recently awarded the Dave Goedecke Lifetime Achievement Award by the California Band Directors Association during the association’s recent convention held in February.

Halseth has been a professor in the music department since 1993. Since that time he has conducted the Symphonic Wind Ensemble and Concert Band. Aside from conducting, Halseth also teaches the master’s conducting course for graduate students.

Andy Collinsworth, last year’s vice president of the California Band Directors Association, said the association felt Halseth met its requirements for the lifetime achievement award.

“Robert was nominated and selected for the award by the CBDA Board of Directors for his long and distinguished career as a band director and a leader in music education in California,” Collinsworth said. “His service to the profession has been exemplary, and he has been, and continues to be, a role model for many of us.”

During his 40-year career, Halseth was chosen three times by the California Band Directors Association to lead its all-star honor bands in 1991, 1998 and 2008. He has has also had the honor of conducting in Carnegie Hall and the Mondavi Center.

Department chair Ernie Hills said Halseth is an exceptional leader to learn from.

“He is an extraordinary teacher. He is also a masterly conductor,” Hills said. “Waving the conductor’s baton looks simple, but there is an artistry that Bob brings to the podium. It is inspirational to the students and gets a level of performance from them that others might not otherwise get.”

In his 18 years at Sac State, Halseth has been a “guiding light” to those he has come in contact with, Hills said.

“I believe that great professors find ways to impart what they have learned on to the next generation. And I feel that he has done that by mentoring the graduate students in his conduction course,” Hills said.

Halseth has been teaching the art of music for 40 years. His career has taken him from an elementary teacher in Oceanside, Calif., to the halls of Capistrano Hall at Sac State. Since 1981, Halseth has been at the college level, with stops at Carroll College in Waukesha, Wis., and the University of the Pacific in Stockton.

Christina Sleigh, graduate conducting student, said Halseth has taught her important methods for teaching music.

“He has taught me not only on technique, but how to work with people. As a conductor you spend a lot of time working with the instruments and the people behind them,” Sleigh said. “And in order for the ensemble to come together, it has to be in a creative and safe environment.”

Sleigh said Halseth has been teaching for so long that he has the ability to improvise when needed.

“He has such a wealth of knowledge from everything that he has done that he has quiver of arrows on his back,” Sleigh said. “If one idea does not work, he can draw from his quiver until he finds the right combination for what he needs.”

When she graduates with her master’s degree in conducting this spring, Sleigh feels she will be ready for anything.

“His overall philosophy to teaching and conducting is what I feel he has given to me,” Sleigh said. “I now have my own quiver to draw from so that I am able to get the desired results when conducting a group.”

Becky Reiley, freshman flute performance major, believes Halseth knows how to get the best from her and her classmates.

“He has the ability to convey how we should play the music in front of us. If you listen to what he is saying right at that moment in the piece, it may sound really bizarre, but it will really help with how we express ourselves through the music,” Reiley said.

With possible retirement looming, Halseth said he will not be done with music after he leaves campus.

“I play in a community band right now, so I do not know what I would do without music. It is like a person who played golf and now coaches it, you want to just be on the course,” Halseth said. “I will be 70 on my next birthday and my time working in front of students here at the school might come to an end in the next five years. But I enjoy very much being a conductor of music and making a contribution to the music world.”