Bob Hallquist

 
Bob Hallquist solos beneath the Roseville Big Band sign.
Bob played a flugelhorn solo on "When I Fall in Love".
 
Bob played trumpet with his plunger mute ready.
Bob plays trumpet, holding the plunger in his left hand.

Known as "Doc" to thousands of Roseville Area High School students, Bob earned his Ph.D. in music education from the University of Minnesota in 1979. His undergraduate education was at Hamline University, and he received his M.A. from the University of Minnesota in 1964.

Bob was featured with the Roseville Big Band at "Putting on the Ritz", March 10, 2001, playing trumpet and flugelhorn solos on "When I Fall in Love", "Pennsylvania 6-5000", "Woodchopper's Ball", "Route 66", and other selections. He also filled in with the band for one of our concerts in Central Park several years earlier.

Bob was the band and choir director at Arlington-Green Isle in Minnesota from 1958 through 1960. He was a band director in Roseville—first at Ramsey High School and then at the combined Roseville Area High School (RAHS), from 1961 until his retirement in 1997, except for a sabbatical and a year (1986–1987) as band director at Gustavus Adolphus College. At Gustavus, he also taught arranging, conducting, and instrumental methods. His high school students included Roseville Big Band trumpeter Kim Kermes and trombonist Rich Eyman, as well as all the RAHS students featured as guest artists with the Roseville Big Band through 1998.

If you happened to be tuned in to Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion during Music in Our Schools Week in 1981, you heard Bob leading the RAHS band in a live performance on the show. Bob's high school bands and jazz bands consistently won honors in festivals and competitions, including the RAHS Symphonic Band's grand championship among instrument groups in the 1997 edition of the annual Gateway Music Festival in Redwood City, California.

Bob also served as brass instructor at Hamline University from 1967 to 1969, trumpet instructor at Rymer School of Music in 1963–1964, interim director of the Augsburg College Band in 1973, choir director at Advent Lutheran Church in Roseville in 1963–1964, assistant conductor of the Minneapolis Civic Orchestra from 1966 through 1970. When Mark Lammers started the Roseville Municipal band in 1964, Bob helped get the group going.

Bob held the first trumpet chair with the St. Paul Civic Orchestra's from 1955 through 1958. From 1962 through 1971, Bob was principal trumpet in the Minneapolis Civic Orchestra and played many performances with the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra. He also served as principal trumpet with the Center Opera Company in 1966–1967 and played several performances with the Minnesota Orchestra over the years. Bob also has done extensive jobbing in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, including concert bands, chamber music, orchestras, dance bands, and show bands.

Along with the late Dr. Frank Bencriscutto, Bob has led the Midwest Musical Ambassadors, a group of outstanding student instrumentalists and vocalists selected annually, on multiple performing tours to Europe. Roseville Big Band guest vocalist Stephanie Newton Erickson was one of the students who participated in one of the tours with Bob.

Busier than ever after his retirement, Bob performs in the Classic Big Band, substitutes in the cornet section of the Lake Wobegon Brass Band, and has led the Bend in the River Big Band since founder Mark Lammers' move to Arizona. He also performs in the Don Riggs Orchestra (formerly the Dean Olson Orchestra) and the combo that began as the Dick Roberts Orchestra.

This page was last updated
Friday, February 07, 2020.


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