Meet the Maestro

Maestro Robert Carter Austin

A native of Tennessee, Robert Carter Austin is currently in his twenty-sixth season as Music Director of the Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra. Maestro Austin has an unusually diverse educational background for a classical musician, including a Bachelor of Science degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Diploma (with Distinction) in Computer Science from Cambridge University, and a Master of Musical Arts degree from Stanford University.

Maestro Austin’s first professional appointment was as Artistic Director of the Chattanooga Opera in 1974. He added the post of Artistic Director of the Southern Regional Opera in Birmingham, Alabama in 1978. Shifting his focus to symphonic music in 1981, he became Music Director of the Cheyenne Symphony Orchestra in Wyoming, before coming to Texas in 1985 as Music Director of the East Texas Symphony Orchestra in Tyler. He has served as Music Director of the Garland Symphony Orchestra since 1988, of the Las Colinas Symphony Orchestra since 1991, and of Symphony Arlington since 2000.

In frequent demand as a guest conductor, Maestro Austin has led performances with opera companies and symphony orchestras in eleven states in the U.S. His international credits include performances with the Chursächische Philharmonie, Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie, and Orchester des Nordharzer Städtebundtheaters in Germany; the Florence Sinfonietta, Orchestra Sinfonica Regionale del Molise, Milano Classico, and L’Offerta Musicale in Italy; the National Orchestras of Ukraine, Ecuador, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and the Philippines; and orchestras in France, Spain, Slovakia, Bulgaria, Colombia, Venezuela, Brazil, Mexico, and China. Upcoming engagements for Maestro Austin include the Orchestra Sinfonica Città di Grosseto in Italy and the Amazonas Filarmonica in Brazil.

Off the podium, Maestro Austin describes himself as an avid skier, a closet country music fan, and a notorious oenophile. His wife, Dr. Kathryn Gamble, is the Director of Veterinary Medicine at Lincoln Park Zoo in Chicago, Illinois.