Rob joined 5th grade band at Defiance Middle School, choosing to play the trombone due to the way that the notes slide like our voices do, unlike the piano, which can only play 88 relatively-boring notes. Upon entering high school, he transitioned to the baritone/euphonium because there was a need at that instrument, and the directors all knew that Rob was fond of playing every instrument he could (often at the least appropriate times and with dynamics that rival the sound of a freight train.)

Choir was always a big part of Rob's life. While at Defiance High School, Rob was selected to the OMEA Allstate Choir all 3 years he was eligible to audition. He was also very active in solo and ensemble competition, where he received a total of 10 Class A solo vocal superior ratings. He also took solos and ensemble work to contest with the trombone and euphonium for 6 years total. In 7th grade, Rob started taking private voice lessons with Jim Estep, who became like a third parent to him. Jim taught Rob the importance of teaching emotion to young performers, and they also played intensely nerdy games of music theory trivia, oftentimes for the duration of what was supposed to be Rob's voice lessons. 

Musical theater, however, has always been Rob's #1 performative love. According to his mother, it all started in the Pre-K after-school performance of The Alphabet Train, where Rob was cast in the premier role of "caboose." As the story told by his mother goes, when he walked out on stage like a scared little 5 year old and the audience all went "aweeee", a star was born. A few short years later, Rob lied about his age in the 3rd grade and auditioned for and was cast in his first Young People's Theater Guild production, The Reluctant Dragon. He did every show with YPTG for the next 5 years. He started doing plays with the Fort Defiance Players in 7th grade in The Sound of Music, and remained active with them until college. A few years after returning to Defiance in 2011, Rob was thrilled to play Smudge in FDP's production of Forever Plaid, as it was a role he had played at the London Arms Playhouse 10 years earlier.

Knowing that he wanted to pursue a career in musical theater at a very young age, in 7th grade, Rob enrolled in tap, ballet, jazz, and through High School was a member of the the partner lift class at Defiance Dance Studio, where he excelled at the art of the inappropriately-timed and unwelcome prat fall.

After High School, Rob was accepted into the Vocal Performance program at Wright State University's School of Music, where he studied under Dr. Kimberly Warrick, who has remained a close mentor to Rob to this day. At WSU, Rob was cast in lead roles in Iolanthe, The Gondoliers, and his first operatic tenor role as Mr. Angel in Mozart's The Impresario. He was also a member of the Paul Lawrence Dunbar Chorale, the Men's Chorus, and the WSU Chamber Singers. Rob wrote his first full musical, JUNK during his second year at WSU, which was received very well by the audience and is still mentioned by Dr. James Tipps whenever they see each other. 

Rob spent the summers of his college years at Interlochen Arts Camp in Michigan, where he was a vocal student, practice room supervisor, cabin counselor, and eventually recreational director of the Intermediate Division (ages 12 - 14.) While at Interlochen, Rob had the opportunity to sudy with world-class vocal instructors, attend master classes and private concerts by legends of the musical industry, and establish a vast network of friends who have lifelong careers in the arts. In the summer of 2001, he met a friend at Interlochen who was a Music Therapy major at Ohio University, and whereas Rob didn't want to major in MT, he wanted to be around it. He transferred to Ohio University's School of Music in his junior year. At OU, Rob was a member of the Singing Men of Ohio, the Opera Workshop, The University Singers, and he was thrilled to dust off the ole euphonium again with the always-energetic Ohio University Marching 110. 

In Athens, Rob realized how much he loved performing his own musical comedy, so after college he stuffed everything he could into his car and drove out to Las Vegas, and 6 months later settled down in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where he became the musical director of the London Arms Pub and Playhouse, and also headlined their piano bar. While playing piano one day, a couple asked him if he would be interested in giving their daughter piano lessons, but he told them that he was a performer, not a teacher. The couple eventually convinced Rob that all they wanted was for their daughter to love music the way he did. They didn't care if she became a concert pianist, they just wanted her to have some creative time in her life, so in 2003, Rob took on his first piano student, and a month later, he had 3 voice students. Interlochen taught him that he loved working with kids, and the rest just came naturally. After two glorious years of performing musicals and playing piano next to the water in Lake Havasu (and meeting his future wife, Taryn), Rob took his talents to Tucson, where he was a primary cast member at the world-famous Gaslight Theater. 

At the Gaslight, Rob had an opportunity to deeply study comedy and audience reaction, as much of their shows are done in family-friendly improv. But he also learned a lot about vocal health and endurance, as this was the era in which Rob performed more volume of shows than any other. 

In 2011, now with Taryn as his wife, and their young daughter Lily, Rob came back to Ohio to raise his family, work for the best darn small business in the world, Rose and Kissner Insurance Agency (where he is currently employed by a friend he met doing high school musicals and marching band -- so never underestimate band nerds!), volunteer for his community, and finally establish Rob's Music Studio. One of his proudest moments was watching his then-12-year-old daugter Lily play the role of Katisha in the Young People's Theater Guild production of The Mikado. It was her first opera, and it was with Rob's first theater company -- what could be more exciting?!?

Completely coincidentally, probably (but there are some studies to suggest that the right musicals can cause this phenomenon), 75% of the cast members of FDP's Forever Plaid had children born roughly 9 months after the final curtain, and thus came Rob's son, Truman. All 4 Lawsons are artists, through and through, and his children play the role of guinea pigs for the methods he uses on his students (not to be confused with the actual guinea pigs who reside in their humble-yet-sprawling chateau inside Rob's Music Studio, Pete and Chasten!) 

At Rob's Music Studio, we hold a live studio recital every year. The students are completely in charge of doing whatever repertoire they want, as long as whatever they pick is harder than they think they are capable of playing at the time they choose it, usually about 2 months before the recital. The end result is a marvelous display of young artistry, year after year. 

Rob has successfully prepared students who auditioned and were accepted to programs in music education, music therapy, music performance, and musical theater. All of the success of all of these students was achieved without once making a student feel like their coach was disappointed in them. Rob's Music Studio is and will always be an accepting, safe space for young artists to explore who they are and what they want to project to the world.

Rob teaches his students to not just accept, but genuinely become excited about the mistakes they make. He uses positive criticism and confidence building with children and teens, and he works to help the students understand themselves, their intentions, their behaviors, their responses, and their emotions, as well as to spark their curiosity and leave bread crumbs of information, which allows the students to take their own journey to finding the answers. 

That's it. You got Rob's entire secret teaching method right here, if you are still reading!

And just like Rob's weekly philosophical themes, that secret method isn't only applicable to learning music, it's applicable to learning life.