In 2004, Rob Hallquist celebrated 25 years of full-time service to American higher education, having been a professor of piano on the music faculties of Mercer University (Macon, Georgia) and the University of Northern Colorado (Greeley, Colorado). That same year he finished an eight-year appointment as Director of UNC’s School of Music before moving to North Carolina to accept the position of President of Musikgarten/ Music Matters, Inc., and subsequently to begin his own business CLAVIER21.

Born in Connecticut and raised in Louisiana, Hallquist holds three degrees in piano performance: a bachelor’s from Centenary College, a master’s from Indiana University, and a doctorate from the University of North Texas. His piano teachers have included his father Robert N. Hallquist Sr., Winnie Peters, Eddy Kozak, Nena Plant Wideman, Abbey Simon, Zadel Skolovsky, Joseph Banowetz, and – periodically since 1982 – Sophia Rosoff, President of the Abby Whiteside Foundation.

Active as a recital soloist and chamber musician, Hallquist has performed on Georgia Public Television and on Chicago radio station WFMT’s famed “Dame Myra Hess Memorial Concerts.” With cellist James Fittz, Hallquist has toured southern China, offering recitals and piano masterclasses. He also performed an early version of Robert Schumann’s Symphonic Etudes for the Robert-Schumann Gesellschaft of Zwickau, Germany, as part of the Zwickauer Musiktage in 2003.

In addition to having shared the stage with the DaVinci and Manhattan String Quartets, Hallquist has been a concerto soloist with the Greeley Chamber Orchestra, the Greeley Philharmonic Orchestra, the Macon Symphony Orchestra, the Shreveport Summer Festival Orchestra, and the University of Northern Colorado Symphony Orchestra. He has published articles with Clavier Magazine, Early Childhood Connections, and GAMUT: Journal of the Georgia Association of Music Theorists.

Hallquist has presented for conferences of the College Music Society, the Colorado State Music Teachers Association, the Georgia Music Educators Association, and the Music Teachers National Association. Additional professional affiliations include the Music Educators National Conference, where he is a past chairman of the Georgia Music Educators Association’s Piano Division, and the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy, where he is a member of the Historical Perspectives Committee.

Hallquist has adjudicated for state and local chapters of the Music Teachers National Association, the National Federation of Music Clubs, and the National Guild of Piano Teachers. He is a seasoned instructor of pianists aged 6 to adults. Building on previous full-time appointments mentioned earlier, he has served since 2007 as an adjunct faculty member for Catawba College and the Catawba Community Music Program, accompanying, and teaching music theory and applied piano.