Photo provided Musician 1st Class Robert Kurth, left, originally of St. Clairsville, and Senior Chief Musician Antje Farmer perform a duet accompanied by the U.S. Navy Band earlier this month.

WASHINGTON D.C. — A career in music has taken St. Clairsville native Robert Kurth a long way.

The 1999 St. Clairsville High School graduate is now a musician 1st class for the U.S. Navy Band and earlier this month performed a duet with Senior Chief Musician Antje Farmer during the U.S. Navy Band Holiday Show. Several of the ensembles within the Navy Band perform a show together at the end of the year to celebrate the holidays.

“It’s a unique experience here,” he said.

Kurth is a member of the Sea Chanters Chorus. He has been with the Navy nine and a half years.

“The U.S. Navy Band has multiple groups. One of the subgroups is the choir,” he said. “My job in the Navy is singing full time, and this particular concert is a concert we do every year. We do holiday tunes and Christmas music. We just do a wide variety of things for the Department of Defense and the governments. We are actually a presidential support unit, so we do things for the White House all the time.”

Kurth added that he was very active during this particular concert.

“The guy who was supposed to be Santa got sick, and I actually had to fill in for Santa Claus, so I was actually Santa Claus this year as well,” he said. “We sing all over the country. We do a lot of different things, so it’s a unique way of serving your country.

“It’s a pretty great job. It’s definitely one of those things where finding musicians who also want to serve their country can be a challenge, because the military lifestyle is a very specific lifestyle and it’s a wonderful way to serve and be of service, and I really do enjoy serving this way. Being in the Navy Band offers you a lot of opportunities. I’ve sung at the White House a dozen or more times. I’ve sung for the last three presidents.”

Kurth said music was a significant part of his life when he was attending school in St. Clairsville.

“I sang at the elementary level and when I was old enough to pick up a trombone, I did that. I was in the high school band. I was the field commander in my senior year. I was also in the St. C. Singers, so I went around the state of Ohio and other places,” he said.

Eventually he ended up at Heidelberg University in Ohio as a music education major, but his first love has always been performing. He later earned a master’s degree in vocal performance from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh.

“At that point, I was looking for vocal performing work but didn’t find any so I was teaching,” he said.

He taught collegiate level music at several schools. Then one of his colleagues suggested becoming a military singer, since the military branches have choirs as well as military bands.

“It’s different,” he said. “You win the audition and then you go and enlist. You’ve got to go to boot camp. Like every other Navy musician in the band, I had to go to basic training,” he said, adding that the process is very competitive. “You’re competing against some of the best musicians of the country.”

He said the job demands certain qualities, and the musicins often perform at sensitive diplomatic functions.

“You need to have a commitment to service. What we do, it doesn’t often put you in the limelight. It puts you in a position where you are making a difference in terms of world politics, because we’re making the atmosphere in which these conversations are happening. We grease the wheels of diplomacy. We make the atmosphere better. We sing music in foreign dignitaries’ native languages so they feel respected and appreciated.”

Kurth said it is important to leave one’s ego at the door.

“I’m never going to be some: ‘You’re a famous singer, give me your autograph,'” he said. “That’s not how it operates. It’s a service, so you have to be OK being the person that does an incredible job – you’re willing to put in the time to do a performance that is truly at a world-class level, but knowing at the end of the day, you’re doing this as a service to your country versus being the guy with your name in the limelight, who’s getting the autograph signings.”

However, as in his recent duet with Farmer, everyone gets a chance to be center stage.

“This happened to be a show where I had the honor of doing that and having that duet with Chief Farmer. We have so much talent in the group. We try to make sure people get the opportunity to get down in front and show what they can do.”

Kurth has performed at many events. He sang at the World Series two years ago.

“The best solo anthem gig I ever did was this really special one where they bussed in all these veterans,” he said, recalling when World War II and Korean War veterans were brought to the World War II Memorial where Kurth, a solo bugler and a color guard rendered honors. “It was a beautiful day, just being able to honor these old veterans and bring a tear to their eye and let them know that they are remembered and respected.”

The job also demands knowledge of every aspect of a performance.

“Like any other military organization, we all share duties. There’s not some civilian we hire out to book our tours or to fix our computers. There’s a lot of things we have to do in-house. One of the jobs that actually needs done is we have to have a choir conductor. I’m currently the group’s conductor,” he said. “I really love conducting the group because it’s like driving a sports car. Everybody in the group is a professional singer. They’re all fantastic singers, they’re great people to work with, they all have a service mentality, and so when I’m conducting that group it’s like driving a sports car.”

Kurth said he also built long-lasting friendships.

“Basic training, although it can be intimidating, gives you the opportunity to interact with people that actually do the central work of the Navy, being on the ships and forward-deployed and being around the world everywhere we need the Navy to be. I actually still keep in contact with the men and women I went to boot camp with. A lot of those folks are still out on the ocean as we speak, doing their job,” he said.

“One of the most important things about our job is just telling the Navy’s story,” he continued. “We’re trying to connect Americans with what their Navy is doing, because their Navy’s out there keeping them safe, 24 hours a day, seven days a week when we can’t put boots on the ground. A lot of times folks can’t see it, so they don’t know it’s happening.”

Kurth currently resides in Bowie, Maryland. He frequently visits his hometown of St. Clairsville and his father, Charles Lee Kurth. He is preparing for next year’s tours of Virginia, Tennessee, Arkensas, Oklahoma and Texas in March.

“This job offers a lot of variety. We do a lot of different things. It certainly doesn’t get boring,” he said.

“My dad was a Marine and he served in Vietnam,” Kurth noted, adding he does not believe that kind of service is for him.

“I sort of discounted military service because my image was my dad fighting in jungles in Vietnam,” he said. “They need people in the military who do everything, every skill set, whether you’re a computer guy, a tech guy, a musician, you’re good with mechanical things or you have that desire to be out there and on the front lines. Different people are built in different ways, but the military needs all of those people in all of those different ways to serve. Being able to serve as a singer seems almost silly until you realize that this is something that does make a difference.”