Robert William Witt

Robert William Witt (March 4, 1930 – September 18, 1967) was a mid-20th-century neoclassical and experimental composer. A native of Youngstown, Ohio, he was a composer, pianist, and professor of music at Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University. Like his mentor, Vincent Persichetti, Witt was well known for exploration of new musical forms and for integrating old themes into new works.

Robert Witt was born in Youngstown, Ohio, son of Alvy T. and Lillian Keffer Witt. Recognized as a prodigy at a young age, Robert began his musical career at the age of five by taking piano lessons. Formal studies in music continued throughout his youth at Ursuline School of Music and Dana School of Music. Witt continued his musical studies at the Cleveland Conservatory of Music with Ruth Edwards from 1945 to 1946, at the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore from 1946–1948, where he studied with Nicolas Nabokov, Pasquale Tallarico, and Renée Longy-Miquelle, and at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music from 1949-1950.

It was at the Philadelphia Conservatory of Music that he began to study with his mentor, Vincent Persichetti, who recommended him for studies at Juilliard. While at Juilliard from 1950–1953, Witt was awarded an honorary scholarship, and he continued his studies in composition with Persichetti. A teaching fellowship in literature and materials of music was bestowed on him while he was still an undergraduate, as an assistant to Bernard Wagenaar, and he received both his B.S. in Music in 1952 and M.S. in Music in 1953.

In the fall of 1951, Witt married Eva Mondrut, a coloratura soprano, and over the next ten years they produced five children – three daughters and two sons. Following graduation, Witt was Director of Music at Foxhollow School for Girls, one of the Berkshire preparatory schools in Lenox, Massachusetts. He also taught at the Emma Willard School for Girls in Troy, New York.

1955 and 1956 were pivotal years in his life. Witt had been a severe diabetic since childhood, and in 1956 he lost his eyesight to glaucoma. Within a year, he taught himself Braille and began transcribing his music into Braille. He resumed composing, performing and teaching as an Assistant Professor of Music at the Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University.

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