Pianist Robert (Bobby) Levinger possesses the qualities of humility, honesty, and confidence as an artist. He has been praised for bringing depth, conviction, and authenticity in his performances. He plays “with considerable dramatic flair, thunderous power, dazzling speed and technical excellence” (The People’s Critic). Robert feels well at home in a wide variety of musical situations, whether it be solo, concerto, or chamber.

As a soloist, Robert’s performances have taken him across the U.S., England, Spain, and Japan. Recent solo venues of note include: Overture Hall of Madison, WI; Trianon Theatre of San Jose, CA; Roussel Hall of New Orleans, LA; White Rock Theatre of Hastings, UK; and Palau de la Música Catalana, Barcelona, Spain. In the past, Robert’s performances have also been broadcast on WPR in Wisconsin. Sponsored by the Maria Canals Piano Competition, he gave a recital and masterclass tour in Barcelona, playing outside historic Camp Nou and for the president of FC Barcelona in the process.

Recent awards and honors include being named a national finalist in the MTNA Steinway and Sons Young Artist Competition, and a semi-finalist in the 2017 San Jose and 2018 New Orleans International Piano Competitions. His years of study in Texas also garnered him great successes, as he medaled in the Young Texas Artists’, Houston Tuesday Musical, San Antonio Young Artist, and TMTA Collegiate Competitions.

Since his orchestral concerto debut at age 14, Robert has been recognized for his concerto playing, engaging with orchestras around the U.S., including the Madison Symphony, Mississippi Valley, Austin Symphony, Moores Symphony, and La Crosse Symphony Orchestras. His performance of the Grieg Concerto with the Madison Symphony in Overture Hall was presented live on Wisconsin Public Television and Radio. Most recently, following success in 2019 performing Prokofiev’s First Piano Concerto, Robert received a return engagement with the La Crosse Symphony Orchestra, performing Beethoven’s Fourth Concerto on multiple occasions.

He has performed in solo masterclasses for artists including Paul Lewis, Boris Berman, Anton Nel, Boris Slutsky, Abbey Simon, Lang Lang, Alessio Bax, and Ignat Solzhenitsyn. In addition, he has performed in chamber masterclasses for the Takács Quartet, Joel Krosnick, Ieva Jokubaviciute, Raman Ramakrishnan, duo526, and the Claremont Trio.

Chamber playing has come to define much of Robert’s musical personality. Completing an additional Masters’ degree in Chamber Music from the University of Michigan, he was twice invited to the historic Kneisel Chamber Music Festival in Maine, performing trios, quartets, and quintets in 2019 and 2021. In 2022, Robert completed a five-month chamber residency – known as Lincoln Center Stage – aboard a Holland America Line cruise ship, performing as part of a piano quartet ensemble. Six days a week, Robert performed solo, duo, trios, and quartets while traversing the seas and meeting people from around the world. In the summer of 2025, chosen as one of three piano fellows, Robert will attend the Yale School of Music’s Norfolk Chamber Festival. His second year of attendance, there, he will perform in the season’s six-week program of music spanning from Baroque to Contemporary.

In 2018, Robert also co-founded BrioChe Duo with violinist Chihiro Kakishima. Together, their performances have taken them around the world, most recently the Eastman School of Music in the U.S. and performance venues in Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan.

Above all, exploring underplayed works by familiar and unfamiliar composers in chamber and solo settings has become greatly important to him. In 2023, Robert programmed two large-scale character masterpiece sets of the Russian 20th century literature – the Forgotten Melodies I, Op. 38 of Nikolai Medtner and the Op. 32 Preludes of Sergei Rachmaninov. With Robert’s duo partner, Chihiro Kakishima, Medtner has become something of a speciality, exploring his violin sonatas in recitals at the University of Michigan, duo526’s Sonata Seminar at Indiana University, and at the Eastman School of Music. Delivering honest, convincing performances of unheard works continually inspires and motivates Robert to remain humble in the face of music.

As a teacher, Robert taught at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University as an Associate Instructor of Piano. At the Yale School of Music, like at IU, he also taught piano to non-major college students as a secondary lessons instructor. In addition to these higher education positions, he was a faculty member at the Stamford Music and Arts Academy in southwest Connecticut and maintains a private piano studio in-person and on Zoom.

Robert has studied with notable teachers including Nancy Weems, Logan Skelton, and Roberto Plano, Wei-Yi Yang, and Paul Wirth. In the Fall of 2025, Robert will be continuing his doctoral studies at the Bienen School of Music at Northwestern University, studying with James Giles at the Bienen School of Music.

Aside from music, Robert can usually be found playing word games or watching the latest Star Wars television show. During the American football season, he bleeds green and gold, fanatically supporting his home state’s Green Bay Packers. An animal lover, Robert also has been called a cat whisperer by some, falling hopelessly in love with felines of any kind and any place.