St. Edward’s University Orchestra
This is the unofficial web page for the St. Edward’s University Orchestra. The orchestra ceased to exist when the university eliminated the entire music department due to budget cuts in May 2020. The orchestra performed its final concert, along with the choir on March 12, 2020 at St. Martin’s Church. This was the evening before most of the country shut down due to the pandemic. The university web site no longer references any of the music programs, so this page will serve as a memorial to the humble orchestra.
The St. Edward’s University Orchestra was open to all students with prior experience playing in band or orchestra. The orchestra also includes SEU faculty and staff as well as guest musicians from the Austin community, creating a full orchestra with seasoned sound.
Our concerts have included premiered works, classical favorites, and collaborations with students and faculty and in the visual, literary, and performing arts. We performed both on campus and off campus, averaging two to three concerts per semester.
Music Director
Robert Alan Radmer has been the Music Director of the SEU Orchestra since 2010. Additionally, he is the founder and Music Director of the Balcones Community Orchestra and the Central Texas Medical Orchestra, both in Austin, TX. He has worked with youth orchestras and adult ensembles in six states, and for ten years was Music Director of the Eastern New Mexico University Symphony Orchestra.
Radmer’s primary conducting studies were with Gurer Aykal, General Director of the Turkish National Symphony. Radmer attended by invitation the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen (2001) and the Conductor’s Institute at the University of South Carolina (2002), and studied under conductors David Zinman, Murray Sidlin, Robert Spano, Donald Portnoy, Samuel Jones, and Kate Tamarkin.
Radmer has performed as a violist with chamber ensembles and orchestras in over two thousand performances since 1981 in 21 states and ten countries. He was awarded the Doctorate in Viola Performance from the University of Southern Mississippi in 1993, and has served on the music faculties of Texas State University, the College of Saint Scholastica, Eastern New Mexico University, and Southwest Texas State University. Radmer was honored by being named Teacher of the Year in 1996 by the American String Teachers Association (New Mexico Chapter).
Radmer teaches violin, viola and guitar in his private studio, and in his spare time he is a composer of concert music and is also an active member of the popular music scene in Austin. He also performs and records as a guitarist, singer, songwriter and improvising violist.
The previous and founding conductor was Shelly Annette Jurcevic. She passed away in January of 2019 after several years of musical activities in Michigan. Her Obituary. She was a remarkably gifted musician with wide-ranging interests.