Robert grew up in Monmouth County, New Jersey and credits his high school chorus director, Paul O. Grammer Jr., with inspiring him to pursue music as a vocation. In addition to offering courses in music appreciation and opera (including field trips to performances at the Metropolitan Opera in New York City), Grammer widened Robert's experience of choral music by inviting him to sing with community and church choirs that he conducted. As a senior Robert transitioned from playing trumpet in the pit orchestra to getting a lead (Tony) in the school musical that year (West Side Story). The experience cemented his decision to major in music at Rutgers, where he graduated summa cum laude
in 1978.
Arriving at the University of Maryland in August 1979 he began vocal study with tenor Dr. James McDonald, another very influential mentor in his life. He would complete Master of Music and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees at UMCP. Soon he was auditioning for D.C. area conductors, and met Dr. J. Reilly Lewis, who was leading the newly formed Washington Bach Consort. Thus began a friendship that would span the decades until Lewis' untimely passing in 2016. It was Reilly who recognized Robert's potential for, and interest in, Bach's tenor Evangelist roles and offered him his first such opportunity as the St. John Evangelist, performed in 1981 at Washington National Cathedral and broadcast live on National Public Radio. They would go on to perform the St. John and St. Matthew Passions numerous times, along with the motets, many of the cantatas, and many other works, with Lewis on the podium both of the WBC and the Cathedral Choral Society. Robert would be The WBC's tenor soloist for their Bach anniversary tours in 1985 and 2000. Thus 2020 marked Petillo's 40th year performing with the Washington Bach Consort.
His affinity for Evangelist roles led to his being invited to perform Passions by Heinrich Schuetz, Telemann, CPE Bach, Johann Theile, and others. At the Heinz Chapel in Pittsburgh, Robert performed several times under the baton of Don O. Franklin as part of the Bach festival there. He was Evangelist and clinician for a Bach fesitval in Chico CA that featured one of the Passions. In recent years he performed regularly with the Bach Choir of Bethlehem under the direction of Greg Funfgeld.
Called “one of the enduring joys of the local early-music scene” by the Washington Post, Robert has appeared many times with virtually every oratorio society in the greater DC area since 1980, and in an untold number of churches as a soloist. He took part in many performances at the Maryland Handel Festival under the direction of Paul Traver, with whom he also studied conducting. Robert sang the role of Jupiter in Handel’s Semele when the University of Maryland Chorus took part in the 1990 Halle Handel Festival in Halle, Germany.
His enjoyment of Renaissance and Medieval music led to many appearances with the Washington Camerata, Folger Consort, and other groups specializing in repertory of those eras. He has received acclaim for his many performances of Monteverdi’s Vespers 1610, notably in Venice, Italy and in the National Cathedral with the Folger Consort (one voice per part!), and at Strathmore Hall with the City Choir of Washington.
A co-founder along with Dale Voelker of the Washington Kantorei in 1993, he often soloed and sang in the ensemble as they introduced works by lesser-known European composers such as Rautavaara and Miskinis to DC metro audiences, alongside their offerings of the motets of Schuetz, Praetorius, Bach, Schein, Scheidt, and other well known baroque masters. Robert did his doctoral work on solo cantatas of Georg Philipp Telemann, and aroused Voelker's interest in creating performing editions from Telemann's numerous untouched manuscripts in German libraries, unheard for over 200 years. Together they edited a dozen unpublished church cantatas by Telemann and, with the Kantorei, gave them their first modern performances in the German Embassy and in a variety of churches across DC, Maryland, and Virginia, and produced a CD recording of four of Telemann's late cantatas written for New Year services.
By sheer coincidence Robert met in 1999 internationally known syncopated pianist Alex Hassan, who also lived in Falls Church Virginia and is both a virtuoso exponent of the style and an avid collector with a library of over 50,000 sheets. The pair embarked on regular concerts and a couple of recordings. The first was "Kickin' Up the Dust" in collaboration with soprano Rosa Lamoreaux, featuring songs from the short movie musicals produced by Vitaphone in the 20s and 30s, before the film industry relocated to California. Locally they have performed for the Virginia Ragtime Society and as part of several recital series and home concerts.
In 2002 Petillo and Hassan were invited to perform for the centennial celebration of pianist and composer Billy Mayerl at several venues in the UK including the Aldeburgh Festival, and for the Mayerl Society. Collaborating with mezzo Alison Taffs, they recorded a number of Mayerl's best show tunes on a CD titled "Honeymoon For Three" (the title of one of Billy's musicals).
A member of The United States Army Chorus 1986-2017, Sgt. Major Petillo was a frequently featured soloist and appears on a number of recordings of The U.S. Army Band and Chorus. He served in positions of increasing responsibility including section leader, senior soloist, and group leader. With his love of languages he sought and was awarded the position of Senior Soloist, researching, arranging, and performing songs in 38 languages for high-level exchanges between military leaders, where music was frequently seen to thaw tense situations and completely change the atmosphere to one of warmth and goodwill. Performances before the Army's Chief of Staff and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs were a weekly feature, along with singing at the State Department, Supreme Court, and Capitol, notably for Congressional Gold Medal award ceremonies.
Even a cursory account of Robert's roughly 3,000 performances spanning a career of almost 32 years would make a small book. These included regular performances at the White House and elsewhere in support of 8 Presidents, and the state funerals of former Presidents Reagan and Ford. Among innumerable public performances, The Army Chorus sang for the openings of several presidential libraries; the gala at Carnegie Hall celebrating Irving Berlin's 100th birthday; the 40th Anniversay of the Apollo missions at the Kennedy Center; ten years of Veterans Day concerts in Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center; ten years of Gerry Ford's star-studded charity concerts in Vail, Colorado; a performance at Mission Control in Houston for the astronauts aboard the International Space Station; numerous NFL and MLB games; concerts for the American Choral Directors Association, Intercollegiate Men's Choruses, National Music Educators conferences; choral festivals across the country; National Memorial Day concerts and Independence Day celebrations.
