Raymond R. Neevel/Missouri Professor of Choral Music and Director of Choral Activities.  Prior to his appointment at UMKC, Dr. Robert Bode served on the faculty at Whitman College, Walla Walla, WA, where he was the Alma Meisnest Endowed Chair in the Humanities and Fine Arts and Director of Choral/Vocal Studies.  Robert Bode received his doctorate in Conducting from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in Cincinnati, OH. Prior to attending the Cincinnati Conservatory, Dr. Bode won a conducting scholarship at the prestigious Aspen Music Festival, where he studied opera conducting with Fiora Contino.  In 1982, Bode studied in Wales as a Conducting Fellow at the University-College of Music in Cardiff. He made his Carnegie Hall conducting debut in 1990, conducting the Walla Walla Symphony Chorale in the New York premiere of John David Earnest's The Waking. In addition to his distinguished teaching career, Dr. Bode has enjoyed a successful international conducting career as guest conductor of the Kammerorchester Leipzig, Germany; Filharmonia Sudecka, Walbryzch, Poland; Vratca Philharmonic, Vratca, Bulgaria; and the Yunnan Provincial Chorus, Kunming, China; among many others.  Dr. Bode is noted for his dedication to the commissioning and performance of music by American composers. At Whitman he initiated the Whitman Commissioning Project, which commissioned new works by David Conte, Richard Hundley, John David Earnest, Giselle Wyers, Gwyneth Walker, and others. Dr. Bode is also the Artistic Director of Choral Arts, a semi-professional chamber chorus in Seattle, WA. In spring 2010, the organization received the Margaret Hillis Award for Choral Excellence, presented by Chorus America. Choral Arts' CD, Mornings Like This, was released by Gothic Records in 2010.