Casey Robards is a collaborative pianist and vocal coach known for her versatility, imagination, and sensitive musicality.  Ms. Robards has given recitals with singers and instrumentalists in throughout the United States, as well as France and Brazil.  A lover of chamber music, Casey is a founding member of the KO Trio with flutist, Donna Shin and cellist, Jiyon Shim and performs regularly with her husband, Anthony Patterson as a piano duo.  Ms. Robards is entering her fifth season as a faculty artist/teacher at the Bay View Music Festival where she teaches art song, coaches voice and chamber music, and performs regularly as a solo and collaborative pianist.  Currently, she is a Resident Artist with the 2012 Indianapolis Opera Ensemble as a coach/accompanist. 

Equally at home in many genres, Casey’s musical experience as a collaborative pianist ranges from vocal art song, opera, musical theatre, jazz, and popular styles to string, wind, and brass accompanying.  Specialities include trumpet, trombone, horn, and flute repertoire and the history and performance practice of African American spirituals.

Ms. Robards has recorded a CD of African American spirituals with soprano, Ollie Watts Davis, (“Here’s One”), and appears on recordings with oboist, Nancy Clauter (“Meridian: The Ascending Journey”), Jacek Muzyk, horn (“Horn Constellation”), a DVD with the Eden String Quartet (“A Bountiful Blessing”) and a TV special for a PBS fundraiser with soprano, Courtney Huffman.  Casey’s performances are regularly broadcast on Interlochen Public Radio.

A committed coach and pedagogue, Ms. Robards has been on the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University (Collaborative Piano/Voice), Central Michigan University (Piano) and numerous festivals including Young Musicians Inc. (Evanston, WY); the Weathersfield Music Festival, (Castleton, VT); the Plymouth Music Festival, (Plymouth, MA); and the StudiO Vocal Arts Institute, (Monticello, IL)  She has been a pianist/coach for Indiana Opera Theatre, Illinois Opera Theatre (Urbana, Illinois), and Y.O.P.E. tours (Youth Opera Performance Education). 

As a Tanglewood Fellow in 2004 and 2005, Casey was rehearsal pianist for projects conducted by James Levine, Robert Spano, and Kurt Masur. She has accompanied for masterclasses with artists including William Bolcom and Joan Morris, Phyllis Curtin, James Levine, Malcom Martineau, Sherrill Milnes, George Shirley, Dawn Upshaw, and Roger Vignoles. 

Ms. Robards' awards include the Henri Kohn Memorial Award from the Tanglewood Music Center (2004), the Nancy J. Kennedy Wustman Memorial Accompanying Award (2004), the Fern and John Armstrong Award (1996), and the National Society of Arts and Letters Regional Winner (2002).  Her teachers include Kenneth Drake, Joel Shapiro, William Heiles, Gustavo Romero, Richard Syracuse, Dennis Helmrich, Eric Dalheim, John Wustman, and Nathan and Julie Gunn. Ms. Robards completed the B.M. (Piano Performance) and M.M. (Piano Pedagogy) at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and is currently completing a D.M.A. in Vocal Coaching and Accompanying.