About Robert...
Called “one of the enduring joys of the local early-music scene” by the Washington Post, tenor Robert Petillo is well known in the DC area as a Bach specialist, especially the Evangelist roles in the St. John and St. Matthew Passions, having sung regularly with the Washington Bach Consort since 1980 and having been a soloist with many other local choral societies.
His concertizing has taken him across the country as well as to Germany, Italy, and England. Graduate studies on the music of Georg Philipp Telemann led to his collaborating on editions and performances of his unpublished sacred cantatas, many of them modern premieres.
He served 32 years as a first tenor in The U.S. Army Chorus and was a part of many historic events and thousands of performances nationwide. Now retired from the Army, he continues to sing as a soloist and chorister, and retains a lifelong love of learning in multiple disciplines including theology, art, and the intersection of art and music with mathematics. He enjoys opportunities to visit art exhibits and museums, and to accompany his mathematician wife to math conferences.
