FREEMAN, Robert Music School Director and Professor
Robert Schofield Freeman was born August 26, 1935 in Rochester, NY, and died October 18, 2022 in Austin, TX. Carol Jean Freeman, his beloved wife of 42 years, predeceased him the summer of 2018. Katharine Merk McNally, his first wife and the mother of his children, also passed in 2018. He is survived by his brother, James Douglas Freeman, his children, John Frederick Freeman and Elizabeth Katharine Poon, and his stepson, Scott Alan Henry. He has four grandchildren: Morgan Freeman, Connor Freeman, Benjamin Poon and Nicholas Poon.
Bob lived an accomplished life in the service of classical music, a family legacy. His father was the principal bassist in the Boston Symphony Orchestra. His mother was an accomplished freelance violinist.
A precociously talented oboist and pianist, Bob earned B.A. in music summa cum laude from Harvard College and a diploma in piano performance from the Longy School of Music while performing as a professional oboist in Boston. He earned an M.F.A. and Ph.D. at Princeton University and was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to Vienna.
Bob served initially on the Music faculties of Princeton and MIT. From 1972 to 1996, he was director of the Eastman School of Music, where he was a galvanizing and transformative influence on the school and the City of Rochester. He preserved and expanded the Eastman School campus, which then served as a bulwark against the urban decline threatening the city center. He built a faculty dedicated in equal measures to the performance, academic study, and teaching of music. He led a nationwide rethinking and reformation of collegiate music education in America.
After leaving the Eastman School, he served as president of the New England Conservatory, and in 2000 he became dean of the College of Fine Arts at The University of Texas at Austin in 2000. He taught for many years after stepping down as dean, retiring in 2015.
Bob is the author of numerous published articles on music, as well as several books, including The Crisis of Classical Music in America: Lessons from a Life in the Education of Musicians (2014), Gilbert Kalish: American Pianist (2021) and Woof!: A Love Story of Dogs, Music and Life (2019). He also had recently completed his autobiography, as well as a major new book about the future of the American orchestra.
Throughout his active and varied career, Bob was devoted to ensuring a place for serious musical composition, scholarship, and music making in American life.
Gifts in memory of Bob may be made to one of the following:
• “The Robert and Carol Freeman Scholarship Fund” at the Eastman School of Music (www.esm.rochester.edu/freeman/scholarshipfund);
• “Music Scholarships at the College of Fine Arts at The University of
Texas at Austin” (The College of Fine Arts, Office of the Dean, Attn: Laura Cunningham, 2301 Trinity Street STOP D1400, Austin, TX 78712);
• The musical institution of your choice.