Entertainment

Arts Beat Extra – Robert Gutter, Former Director of Springfield Symphony Orchestra, Dead at 79

Robert Gutter

by Mark G. Auerbach

Robert Gutter, Music Director of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra from 1970-1985, has died at age 79, according to Slipped Disc, a classical music blog. During his tenure in Springfield, he built the Orchestra into a major regional ensemble which toured the major concert halls in New England, launched a successful Summer Pops series at Westfield’s Stanley Park, and became the resident orchestra of the Berkshire Choral Festival. Many of the orchestra’s current players joined the ensemble during Gutter’s tenure. 

A New York native and graduate of Yale, he was director of orchestral activities at The University of North Carolina in Greensboro for the past twenty years, Principal Guest Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of the Ukraine, and subsequently the Philharmonic Orchestra of Bacau in Romania. 

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –

Mark G. Auerbach studied theatre at American University and the Yale School of Drama. He’s worked for arts organizations and reported on theatre for newspapers and radio.

To Top