An elderly man with glasses and gray hair, wearing a black robe, sits at a grand piano in an empty auditorium. He is smiling and appears to be playing the piano with one hand resting on the keys and the other casually draped over the piano.

Fr. Robert Koopmann, OSB

Professor – Piano
Biography

Robert Koopmann OSB, a monk of Saint John’s Abbey, Collegeville, Minnesota, possesses a unique response to music for the piano. His listeners are moved by the sincerity of his interpretations, the care he takes with the musical score, the warmth of his performances, and his belief in the transforming power of music. Praised by critics for his “fine musicianship,” “vitality, energy and great feeling,” his “masterpieces of shading and color,” as well as “his astonishing bravura effects,” Father Koopmann’s programs include music of Mozart, Franck, Debussy, Rachmaninoff, Barber, Schumann, Chopin, Prokofiev, Brahms and others.

Professor of music at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University in Minnesota since 1975, Father Koopmann has performed throughout the United States and abroad. Recent solo performances include concerts in South Africa; Kenya; Tanzania; Phoenix, Arizona; Washington, DC; Madison and LaCrosse, Wisconsin; St. Paul, Minneapolis, Rochester and Duluth, Minnesota; Dayton Beach and Orlando, Florida; and Nassau, Bahamas. Winner of a number of competitions, he holds D.M.A. and M.M. degrees, having studied with Kenneth Amada, Armand Basile, Martin Canin, Willem Ibes, and Sanford Margolis.

Father Koopmann served as the president of Saint John’s University from 2009-2012.

Education
  • B.A., Saint John’s University
  • M.M., University of Wisconsin – Mixwaukee
  • D.M.A., University of Iowa
  • M.Div., Saint John’s University
  • Post-doctoral study:Royal Academy of Music, London
  • Juilliard School of Music