Dr. Robert Parkins

Dr. Robert Parkins is the university organist and a professor of the practice of music at Duke University. He first assumed the position of Chapel Organist at Duke in 1975, then joined the faculty of the School of Music at Ithaca College in 1982, returning to Duke in 1985. As the university organist, Dr. Parkins plays for university events and Chapel services on academic Sundays during the school year, and he directs the annual Organ Recital Series.

A graduate of the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the Yale University School of Music, Dr. Parkins studied organ with Gerre Hancock, Charles Krigbaum, and Michael Schneider, as well as harpsichord with Ralph Kirkpatrick. As a Fulbright scholar, he pursued further organ study in Vienna with Anton Heiller.

Dr. Parkins has concertized throughout the United States and Europe as well as in Central America. His organ and harpsichord recordings have appeared on the Calcante, Gothic, Loft, Musical Heritage Society, and Naxos labels. Still available are several solo CDs featuring the Flentrop, Aeolian, and Brombaugh organs in Duke Chapel, including Early Iberian Organ Music, Brahms: Complete Organ Works, German Romantic Organ Music, Iberian and South German Organ Music, and Organ Music of Frescobaldi. His most recent album, Salome's Dance (recorded on the Chapel's Aeolian organ), was released in the spring of 2019. Including music by late German Romantic and American composers, it can be obtained from Loft Recordings as well as from Duke's Gothic Bookshop.