Nov 14, 2016 By Luke Campbell 4 min read

As Robert Vogel finished class listening to the recordings of his students attempting to simulate a professional orchestra last week, it was just another day where the longtime teacher was amazed with technology.

Vogel, a music teacher and orchestra director at Mt. Lebanon School District, remembers a phone call inside his home in 1981 that gave him the opportunity of becoming a full-time teacher.

“There weren’t many jobs back then,” Vogel recalls. “I subbed for six different school districts – Bethel Park, Mt. Lebanon, Upper St. Clair, Peters Township, Baldwin and South Park – and there happened be an opening that fall. I got the call when I was at home and it was exciting.”

He remembers the extensive line of teachers that built up inside the school to use a telephone.

He also remembers the difficulty it was just to use the copy machine.

Memories, which Vogel will never forget, are trumped by the differences he’s made in student’s lives over the past 35 years, which recently resulted in him being awarded with the Exceptional Teaching Award from Stanford University Oct. 27.

“It’s neat, but extremely humbling at the same time,” Vogel said after receiving the award. “I’m extremely grateful, not just to the school district but to the whole community.”

Jerry Meng, a Stanford student and 2016 Mt. Lebanon graduate, nominated Vogel for the award.

“Mr. Vogel is a devoted music educator and an inspiration to all orchestra students,” Meng wrote in his nomination. “He works tirelessly in managing both string and symphony orchestras, while providing students opportunities to perform in world-class venues and learn from world-class conductors. He seeks to personalize the orchestra experience for all students in order to create balanced and engaged orchestras. His personality is always open and cheerful, which makes working with him easy and pleasant.”

Ten years of elementary band and strings brought Vogel to his position at the high school, where with the growth of Mt. Lebanon created the need for him to take on more responsibilities in a career he didn’t even think was possible during his early years.

“One thing I considered was just going into business and opening up a music store,” Vogel said. “I just never pursued that. I was interested in teaching but honestly didn’t think I would have the talent for it.”

Now, at 58, with most of his time spent helping younger generations, Vogel couldn’t imagine doing anything else than mentoring generations younger than himself.

“What we are really trying to do is develop an appreciation for music and the arts in general,” Vogel said. “We want our graduates to be intelligent consumers of good music. I just love working with young people. I have a great hope for the future. There isn’t a student that walks through that door in the course of the day that I’m genuinely not happy to see.”

Those same feelings are also portrayed from the small percentage that have Vogel compared to the mass amount of students who walk the Mt. Lebanon High School hallways.

“The most important part was that he encouraged me to have the confidence to lead,” Meng said. “I’ve learned about much more than leading orchestras in my four years with him, and through learning that leadership, it afforded me the courage to take risks in reaching out to people and in my planning, both in my own orchestral endeavors and beyond.”

While many things have changed since receiving that phone call, the one thing that hasn’t is his passion that is dispersed in the confines of a room scattered with filled music stands.

“I don’t know how many years I have left, but people have been very kind to say that I should stay for a while,” Vogel said. “I’m not ready to stop anytime soon because I love what I do.”