Profile

Robin Cotton-Cobb

NORMAN , OK , USA
Professional
Classical, Musical Theatre, Soprano


Highlights & Awards

Bio

Robin Cotton is currently a Visiting Instructor of Voice at The University of Oklahoma teaching classical and musical theater voice. For the 2018-2019 school year she was also an adjunct professor of voice at Oklahoma City University teaching classical and musical theater voice (all styles including pop/rock styling and belt techniques). In the spring of 2018 she had the privilege of being an interim instructor of voice at The University of Oklahoma for Professor Kim Josephson as he went on sabbatical teaching classical and musical theater voice to undergraduate, masters and doctoral level students. Ms. Cotton is one of the foremost pedagogues in the nation teaching “crossover” vocal pedagogy.

She was also an adjunct vocal professor at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX and Houston Baptist University teaching musical theater and classical voice to the following majors: vocal performance, music education and musical theater majors for 8 years; and has music directed musicals for Sam Houston State University.

She has performed extensively in the United States and abroad in opera, oratorio and musical theater; and has recently performed (April 2017) Diana Goodman in Next to Normal at The East End Theater. Classically she most recently she performed ‘Orthlinde’ in Die Walkure for the Austin Lyric Opera; and as soprano soloist with the Colorado Symphony in Bernstein’s Mass and Handel’s Messiah. She has performed the following operatic roles: ‘Fiordiligi’ and ‘Despina’ in Cosi Fan Tutte, ‘Mimi’ and ‘Musetta” in La Boheme, ‘Marguerite, in “Faust”, ‘Countess’ in The Marriage of Figaro, ‘Donna Anna’ in Don Giovanni, Madeline in “The Face on the Barroom Floor”, ‘Nedda’ in Pagliacci, and ‘Angelica’ in Suor Angelica among other lyric soprano roles. Her professional musical theater credits include: ‘Desiree’ in A Little Night Music and ‘Marion’ in The Music Man and a series of musical theater evenings performed with the Santa Barbara Symphony featuring songs by Rodgers and Hammerstein, Jerome Kern and Harold Arlen.

Her musical theater graduates from Sam Houston State University have appeared on Broadway, in National and International tours and in regional theaters across the country and abroad. Most notably she was Katie Rose Clarke’s collegiate voice teacher. Katie Rose Clarke is currently the longest actress to perform Glinda in Wicked on Broadway. Katie Rose Clarke took over for Kelli O’Hara in the part of Clara Johnson in Guettel’s Light in the Piazza on broadway and finished the run including the PBS broadcast of the role when she was 21 years old. Her most recent roles on broadway are Ellen in the revival of Ms. Saigon, Hannah Campbell in Allegiance and she continues to perform Glinda in Wicked last seen in the role in December 2019. Ms.Cotton was also Nkrumah Gatling’s collegiate vocal instructor (currently Coalhouse in Ragtime at The Arden Theater in Philadelphia). The Escapologist in Matilda the musical on Broadway, ensemble and John understudy in the Ms. Saigon revival; Hair Broadway and National Tour; Porgy and Bess National Tour.

Her students are national and regional competition winners in both classical and musical theater voice. In 2018 her OU student Sydney Byte Icenogle was the National musical theater 1st place winner for the National Association of Teachers of Singing competition in the lower college MT women division and Nkrumah Gatling placed 4th and received the Mark Blitzstein award in the prestigious Lotte Lenya competition in 2018; also Kay Boyte Moore won 2nd place in the Emerging professional musical theater division of the Classical Singer Convention competition this past summer 2019.

For more information please see www.robincobb.com for a more complete list of her professional/equity musical theater and operatic graduates.

She has been an adjudicator for both classical and musical theater competitions on the local, regional and national levels; and has presented workshops and masterclasses in (crossover) audition repertoire, technique and coaching at the University of Louisiana in Monroe, Rose State College; and at various public and private high schools in Texas, Oklahoma, and Louisiana.

For the past ten years she has held numerous leadership position roles in the Houston National Association of Teachers of Singing Chapter GHNATS, serving a four year position as VP of Auditions for the GHNATS annual spring Competition, as well as serving four years as the college vocal music fair chairman for Houston’s largest collegiate vocal recruiting event. Her duties included running the college vocal music fair in October, and being the main contact liason between colleges in Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas, as well as between Houston public and private high schools. She has adjudicated as a guest judge nationally for NATS in both the classical and musical theater divisions.

She holds a B.A. and M.M. in Vocal Performance and Pedagogy from the University of Texas at Austin and is honored to be a member of the outstanding OU Voice area faculty.


Media

like
like
like