Dr. Robert Janssen
Applied Clarinet and Saxophone
Chamber Music, Jazz Ensemble, Performance Seminar
AP and Advanced Music Theory, Basic Aural Awareness and Sight-Singing

Robert Janssen graduated from the Manhattan School of Music where he studied clarinet with Leon Russianoff and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst where he was teaching assistant to Michael Sussman. He received a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in 2000 from the City University of New York Graduate Center where he studied clarinet with Charles Neidich and theory with Joseph Straus. His dissertation is titled, “Analysis and the Performer’s Intuition: A Study of Joan Tower’s Fantasy for Clarinet and Piano.” Dr. Janssen has taught at Georgia College and State University, University of West Georgia , Georgia State University, Clayton State University , Brooklyn College and the Bloomingdale School of Music in New York City . He has held faculty positions at UAB and Samford and currently teaches saxophone and clarinet at Birmingham Southern College. An active performer, Dr. Janssen appears regularly in solo, chamber and orchestra performances. He has performed with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, the Charleston Symphony, Atlanta Pops, and numerous orchestras around Georgia. In New York he performed with the Bronx Symphony, Paragon Ragtime Orchestra, Brooklyn Heights Orchestra, Amato Opera, Big Apple Saxophone Ensemble and the Metropolitan Winds. In June, 2007 Dr. Janssen performed with the Amion String Quartet on a Birmingham Art Music Alliance Concert. The Birmingham News said, “The Birmingham-based Amion String Quartet played well, but clarinetist Robert Janssen was the standout, playing with clarity and sensitivity.” Here in Alabama Dr. Janssen has performed with the Alabama Symphony Orchestra, the Tuscaloosa Symphony Orchestra and the Huntsville Symphony Orchestra. He has performed in the pit orchestras of Camelot, Spamalot, Wicked and Phantom of the Opera with Broadway Across America at the BJCC and in West Side Story at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival in Montgomery. Dr. Janssen joined the ASFA faculty in 2006 and is a member of the National Association for Music Education and The Alabama Federation of Music Clubs.