pianist Earl Myers, conductor Dr. Frederick Fennell, acclaimed Cuban-born Latin/jazz trumpet player Arturo Sandoval, and legendary jazz player Maynard Ferguson. Some of our non-performing guests have included composers Aldo Forte and Dr. Roger Hannay. We commissioned A Piedmont Celebration (2000) from Aldo Forte to commemorate PWS's 10th anniversary (world premiere on our November 2, 2000 concert), and Dr. Hannay was in the audience for our May 4, 1999 concert, when we gave the world premiere of his Symphony for Band (1963) in its first printed version, the Edition Robert Simon.

Robert studied music education and tuba at UNC Chapel Hill and contemplated a career in music education at the college level before deciding to enter the fine jewelry field. While a student at Chapel Hill, he won a concerto competition and performed the Vaughan Williams Tuba Concerto with the school orchestra. In 1983 he published his book Percy Grainger: the Pictorial Biography, written after researching Grainger at the Grainger Museum in Melbourne, Australia on a university grant. While in Australia Robert studied conducting, especially the music of Percy Grainger, with John Hopkins, conductor of the Melbourne and Sydney Symphony Orchestras. In 1999 he published the Edition Robert Simon (the first printed edition) of the Symphony for Band (1963) by noted composer and Professor Emeritus at UNC Chapel Hill, Dr. Roger Hannay.

Robert is a noted authority on Percy Grainger and has regularly provided information about the life, manuscripts, photographs and music of Percy Grainger to dozens of musicians such as Dr. Frederick Fennell and John Bird for use in books, articles and recordings. His book Percy Grainger: the Pictorial Biography is listed in many major music reference books as a source of information about Grainger. He has lectured on Percy Grainger to the College Band Directors National Association and the Virginia Music Educators Association and helped research and was interviewed for a National Public Radio Program about Grainger. Robert is a member of the board of the International Percy Grainger Library Society.  Robert presented his book Fennell, a tribute to the career of Frederick Fennell, at the International Conductor's Guild in NY in January 2006. He is president of Windsor Jewelers Inc. in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. and serves on an endowment committee to UNC-Chapel Hill. He lives in Clemmons with his wife and three sons.