Conductor Robert Gardner is the 2007 winner of the historical Boulanger Prize, joining a prestigious list of “musicians of exceptional talent and integrity” by the foundation started in 1936. The Principal Conductor of the Colorado Choral Arts Society at St. John’s Cathedral in downtown Denver, he has conducted concerts of new music, opera, and choral masterworks in New York City, New Haven and Denver. He has worked with James Levine, Zubin Mehta, Placido Domingo, David Zinman, Gerard Schwartz, Jeffrey Kahane, John Fiore, Ivor Bolton, Alan Gilbert, Roberto Abbado, Robert Shaw, and Steven Sloan among many others. An accomplished baritone, Gardner has sung a balanced repertoire of opera, concert, recital and chamber music throughout the United States, Europe and Asia and maintains a full singing career with major presenters. A frequent clinician, he has taught lessons and master classes at the university level on vocal technique, musical interpretation and collaboration with living composers, and frequently sings outreach presentations for underserved audiences from all walks of life. He has been a guest on NPR's Weekend Edition, Boston’s WGBH radio, New York’s WQXR radio, Denver’s KVOD radio, and on the A&E channel’s Breakfast with the Arts, as well as on several seasonal PBS broadcasts.

A 2001 Pro Musicis International Award winner, he is also the winner of the 1999 William Matheus Sullivan Foundation Award, the 2000 Gerda Lissner Award, and the 2000 Denver Lyric Opera Guild Competition. He trained in opera and orchestral conducting at the Yale University School of Music and participated in young artist programs with Santa Fe Opera, the Bavarian National Opera in Munich, and the Steans Institute for Young Artists at Ravinia in Chicago. Gardner is a featured artist on the 6–CD set of the complete songs of Charles Ives presently being released by Naxos Records.