Robert Hugh Willoughby

Born: June 6, 1921 Grundy Center, Iowa, United States

Died: March 27, 2018 aged 96 Portsmouth, New Hampshire, United States

Robert Hugh Willoughby (Bob) was an American classical flute player and flute teacher. He played both Baroque and modern flute. He has been described by Flute magazine as the "American grandmaster of the flute".

He served as assistant principal flute in the Cleveland Orchestra under George Szell, and First Flute in the Cincinnati Orchestra under Max Rudolf.

Bob taught for many years at Oberlin College, where he was the first Robert Wheeler Professor of Performance. He taught for ten years at the Peabody Institute, and up until his death at the Longy School of Music of Bard College. In 1996 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Flute Association.

John has been (and still is) going through Bob's saved content and is posting new items everyday here on the "archives" page as well as posting it on the Robert Willoughby Facebook Page

Most recently, I've been adding some recitals from Oberlin to the archive pages (courtesy Oberlin College)

Also note that all of the various pictures, letters, recordings, etc. have been taken over by the library at Peabody who will maintain his archives. I did scan almost everything before I sent it so it will all end up on these pages as well, but the physical copies of it all will live at Peabody

We will also be sponsoring some events in honor of Bob's 100th birthday at the NFA convention in August of this summer (2022) in Chicago. Specifically, the Young Artist Competition is being sponsored in honor of Bob. He loved teaching so much and working with young students - I know he would have been excited to be helping with this event. The quarter finals will take place from 5-10pm on Wednesday, August 10 at the Waldorf. The semi-finals will be held from 12:00-3:30pm at the Waldorf on Friday, August 12. And the finals will be held from 12-1:30pm at the Waldorf on Sunday, August 14.