He was born on October 5, 1934, in
Chicago. He received his musical training at the
American Conservatory of Music in Chicago (Piano) and at
Illinois Wesleyan University in
Bloomington, Illinois (Bachelor's Degree in organ performance with Lillian Mecherle McCord). Further studies followed at the
Union Theological Seminary in
New York City (Master's and Doctoral Degrees in Sacred Music, 1957 and 1961) and (through a
Fulbright scholarship) 1957–1959 with
Helmut Walcha in
Frankfurt am Main. In addition, Anderson studied organ with
Heinrich Fleischer and Frederick Marriott, composition with Harold Friedell and
Seth Bingham and harpsichord with Maria Jager. Beginning in 1960, he served as Professor of Organ and Sacred Music at
Southern Methodist University and as organist of the University Chapel and
Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University,
Dallas,
Texas, until his retirement in 1997. He wrote numerous compositions for organ solo, including a
Triptych (1958), as well as a cantata, "Garden of Gethsemane," after a text by
Boris Pasternak. Anderson was organ consultant for some of the finest concert hall organs in North America: the
C. B. Fisk organs at
Meyerson Symphony Center (Opus 100, 1992) and SMU's Caruth Auditorium (Opus 101, 1993), both in Dallas, TX. He also initiated the prestigious
Dallas International Organ Competition, of which he was chair in 1997 and 2000. As a concert organist, he played numerous recitals in the United States and Europe and was invited to leading organ festivals in
Nuremberg,
Paris,
Berlin and
Vienna. He was the featured organist at the 1977 International Contemporary Organ Music Festival at the
Hartt School of Music. He was one of the leading organ teachers of his time in the United States. Among his more than 100 former students were organists such as
Stefan Engels,
George C. Baker,
Ignace Michiels,
Carole Terry and
Wolfgang Rübsam. Robert Anderson died in
Honolulu in 2009. == Discography ==