GAIL M. ROBINSON-OTURU
Music Department Chair
Professor of Music
 Gail
M. Robinson-Oturu,
Chair of the Music
Department/Professor of Voice has a distinguished record as an
educator, performing artist, and scholar.
Dr.
Robinson-Oturu, soprano, is an active performing artist and
sings primarily as a recitalist. Her voice has been heard on
local, regional, national, and international stages. Reviewers
have praised her for her artistry, interpretation, and
technique. A review of her performance with the London Symphony
Orchestra states “she seemed more than an accomplished
performer; she became an elemental force, primal yet infinitely
refined. She held her audience rapt.”
As an
educator, Dr. Robinson-Oturu’s primary academic home was
Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach, FL where she served
twenty-one years as Coordinator of Vocal Studies and Director of
the Opera Workshop. She received campus, state and national
teaching honors and awards. Her campus awards included Faculty
Member of the Year, multiple Excellence-in-Teaching Awards,
Innovative Teaching Awards, Excellence in Community Service, and
Academic Advisor of the Year. The Council for the Advancement
and Support of Education (CASE) in Washington, DC named her the
1988 Florida Professor of the Year and honored her as a silver
medalist on the national level. She often worked with high
school students and programs and served as adjudicator for local
and state festivals.
Dr.
Robinson-Oturu was a visiting scholar at Harvard University
where she began research on African Americans in Mainstream
Opera in the United States. This research and her subsequent
innovations provided inspiration for and have given birth to
various projects of national and international scope. including
the NOA Legacy Career Development Grant awarded to individuals
whose work help to achieve greater racial and ethnic diversity
in Opera. Her dissertation, The Life and Legacy of Todd
Duncan: A biographical study was nominated by New York
University and won the National Opera Association (NOA)
Outstanding Dissertation in Opera Biennium Award. Dr. Robinson-Oturu’s
work remains the only systematic, comprehensive and authorized
biography of baritone Todd Duncan, the original Porgy of
Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess.
Robinson-Oturu continues to provide active leadership to
community and professional organizations. She is the
National Vice President of Conventions of the National Opera Association and is a
member of the National Association of Teachers of Singing.
Robinson-Oturu served as a national Fraternity Director of Sigma
Alpha Iota, International Music Fraternity and as president of
the Daytona Beach Symphony Society, among others. She is an
associate of the Negro Spiritual Scholarship Foundation, where
she was a charter Board member.
A native
of Washington, DC, Robinson-Oturu earned the Bachelor and Master
of Music Education (Vocal Emphasis) from Howard University and
the Doctor of Philosophy from New York University.
Email: OturuG@apsu.edu
Phone: (931)221-7810
Music/Mass Communication Building, Room 139 |
