Leroy J. Robertson

From College of Fine Arts and Communications

Leroy Jasper Robertson
b. 21 Dec. 1896, Fountain Green, Utah
d. 25 July, 1971, Salt Lake City, Utah

Robertson taught music at BYU from September, 1925 through June, 1948.

Biography

Wilson, Marian Robertson, Leroy Robertson, Music Giant from the Rockies. Salt Lake City: Freethinker Press, 1996.

Leroy Robertson (1896-1971), by Alvin Gittins (1922-1981)
In 2007 BYU was given a portrait of Leroy Robertson made by Alvin Gittens, BYU alumnus and U of U faculty member. U of U faculty member Roger Miller wrote this sketch of both Robertson and Gittins:

World-renowned composer, master teacher and conductor, administrator, colleague and friend, Leroy Roberson served BYU as professor of music from 1925 to 1948. After graduating from the New England Conservatory of Music, Robertson rose to national and international prominence during these years at BYU, with widely-performed and prize-winning compositions, including his beloved Oratorio from the Book of Mormon and the orchestral Trilogy, which won the Detroit Symphony's Reichhold Prize (for an unheard of $25,000) in competition with composers from throughout North and South America. In his more than two decades of service at BYU, Robertson was known not only as a gifted creator but also as a talented organizer and builder. Through his efforts, the stature of the Music Department was elevated to new heights, its graduates were sought as teachers throughout the Mountain West, the University Orchestra attained distinction as the best orchestra in the State--student or professional, great artists were brought to campus for performances and residencies, and a foundation of excellence was laid for generations to come. Robertson served faithfully as chair of the General Music Committee of the Church from 1962 to his death, and as head of the University of Utah Department of Music from 1948 to 1964, when he was named the University of Utah's first Distinguished Research Professor. He was elected to the Utah Academy of Science, Arts, and Letters and was a member of the National Association for American Composers and Conductors. His legacy endures in a long list of distinguished students and their students, and his music continues to be performed around the world.

A native of England, Alvin Gittins received a Bachelor of Arts degree from BYU in 1947. He was appointed to the faculty of Art at the University of Utah that same year and went on to become department chair from 1956 to 1962. Highly acclaimed as a portrait artist, Gittins was especially appreciated for his exquisite treatment of hands, which he sometimes left until last. In this portrait, the unfinished hands serve as an unintended metaphor for Robertson's unfinished work at BYU, when--at the height of his career--he was invited to become chair of the University of Utah Music Department. Reluctant to leave his beloved colleagues and students in Provo, he nevertheless accepted the invitation as a "calling" and continued his work at the University of Utah with the same devotion and energy that characterized his life from first to last. It is a remarkable coincidence that the paths of these two great friends should have intersected in this way and that their individual artistic legacies are jointly remembered here.

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