Bio

Following his critically-acclaimed Carnegie Hall debut, Palmer embarked upon a performing career that brought his artistry to many of the major concert halls of the United States and abroad.  His performances have been broadcast on National Public Radio and public television in the United States as well as in China, Japan, Korea, Spain, and Taiwan.

Palmer has been presented in recital by Community Concerts, a subsidiary of Columbia Artists, and he continues to perform regularly throughout the United States, where he has been heard in virtually every major city including several recitals in both Carnegie Hall and Steinway Hall in New York.

He has made fifteen tours of Asia, with solo and concerto performances in the metropolitan centers of Osaka, Seoul, Shanghai, Taipei, and Tokyo, including such prestigious concert halls as the Grand Theatre in Shanghai, the Chiang-Kai Chek Concert Hall in Taipei, and the Seoul Arts Center in Korea.  Palmer has also concertized frequently throughout Europe and Russia.  

As a chamber musician, Robert Palmer has been heard in recital with musicians from the Paris Conservatoire, the Metropolitan Opera Company, the Montreal Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra.  He was a member of the American Piano Trio from 2000-2020.  His CD’s include a solo recording titled The Romantic Spirit and a collaborative CD with cellist Mihai Tetel.

Robert Palmer enjoys a highly successful teaching career and is widely sought after as an adjudicator, artist-in-residence, clinician, lecturer, and presenter of master classes.  His students, who hail from throughout the world, on both the university and high school level have been prize-winners in more than 125 state, national, and international competitions.  Palmer has appeared on the summer faculties of the ARIA international music festival in the United States, the Rencontres Estivales au Moulin in France, the “Musical Summer” International Festival and Master Classes in Spain, and the Interharmony International Music Festival in Germany and Italy.  He has adjudicated international piano competitions in Russia, England, and Thailand as well as national piano competitions in the US including the American Pianists Association Classical Fellowship awards.

A graduate of the Peabody Conservatory of Music and the University of Minnesota, Palmer's many awards include prizes in the Joanna Hodges International Piano Competition and the United States Information Agency National Piano Competition.  Formerly the Mauzy-Porter Distinguished Professor of Piano at Ball State University,  Robert Palmer is a Steinway Artist.