Robert Phillips has played guitar, conducted ensembles, taught, and lectured throughout the U.S. He has been a favorite guest conductor and guitarist in the Chamber Art Madrid festival in Spain for several years. Robert is a regular lecturer and performer in the Leyenda Foundation’s concerts, master classes, and professional development workshops in Oklahoma City, and he is among the most influential guitar educators in the USA.

Over his career as a guitarist Robert Phillips has commissioned over a dozen new compositions by as many composers. He has commissioned or been the dedicatee of music by Meyer Kupferman, Michael Colina, Jorge Morel, Benoit Glazer, Troy Gifford, Charles Griffin, Rex Willis, Howard Buss, John W. Powell, Fred Onovwerosuoke, Naama Perel, Donia Jarrar, Fernando Otero, and Olga Amelkina-Vera.

Robert holds a doctorate in music from the University of Miami. A recipient of a Japan Fulbright, Dr. Phillips is respected internationally as a scholar, and educator, as well as a performer. A former student of Rey de la Torre, Carlos Barbosa-Lima, and David Starobin, he has embraced a wide range of repertory preferences. In addition to the standard classical guitar canon, his repertoire includes works by Luciano Berio, Philip Glass, Alan Hovhaness, Eberhard Weber, and Thelonius Monk. He also performs his own compositions and has premiered works by three-time Pulitzer nominee, Frank Brazinski, Eric Ross, Alfred Giusto, and Meyer Kupferman, as well as a concerto written for him by three-time Grammy winner, Michael Colina.

After retiring from his positions as the guitar instructor at the Lois Cowles Harrison Center for the Visual and Performing Arts, and as professor of guitar at Southeastern University, Phillips has concentrated his efforts on helping the next generation of guitar teachers through his presentations at professional development events, on guest conducting, and on composing.

Robert can be heard on recordings released by TPL Records, Centaur Records, 4Tay Records and Navona Records. He continues to publish his own compositions through Bergmann Edition. His music can be heard on most streaming platforms and on YouTube.