Choir

“Music is a universal language that brings us closer to each other and to God.  On one level, music is a craft that requires discipline, but on a higher level, it develops the soul.”

At the St. Paul Choir, all are invited to join and make a joyful noise unto the lord with us!

Our very talented Music Director is Robert Buxton, M.M.  

Robert seeks to bring music from the past to life for people today through performing and teaching.  Robert is completing a D.M.A in Piano Performance at the University of North Texas, where he also received an M.M., studying with Vladimir Viardo.  Previously, he studied with Solomon Mikowsky at the Manhattan School of Music, where he received a B.M. degree.  He has performed as a soloist and chamber musician in a number of venues; in New York, at Symphony Space, the YIVO institute, Weill Hall at Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall at Lincoln Center, The Spanish Consulate, and Steinway Hall, in Europe, at the Scuola di Musica in Castelnuovo di Garfagnana (Lucca, Italy), and the Maison Erard (Amsterdam, Netherlands), and in Japan, in Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture, Kyoto, and Tokyo.  Interviews and recordings of his playing have been featured on classical radio stations in New York and Kyoto.  He performs weekly solo and chamber lecture-recitals at retirement homes and schools, aiming to bring live classical music to a wider audience. 

Robert’s forthcoming dissertation, “Musical Time and Memory: a Bergsonian study of Rachmaninoff’s Prelude Op. 32 No. 12,” involves the philosophy of Henri Bergson in elucidating the influence of memory on Rachmaninoff’s piano idiom. Also a composer, Robert is writing transcriptions of Gospel and Big Band music, pieces based on medieval chants, and original pieces inspired by Jack Kerouac’s Haikus.  In addition to being the music director here at St. Paul United Methodist Church in Durham, NC, Robert is on the piano faculty at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and runs a private piano studio.  Robert and his wife Shoko live in Chapel Hill, North Carolina with their cat Max.