The University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre & Dance announces that Dr. Caroline Robinson will join the Department of Organ as an assistant professor in the fall of 2024. Robinson is an organist and church musician who has been featured as a solo recitalist across the United States.
“I am honored to join the faculty of the School of Music, Theatre & Dance at the University of Michigan,” said Robinson. “The Department of Organ has a rich history of excellent artistry and innovation. I look forward to drawing inspiration from and building upon that legacy as I work with students, collaborate with stellar faculty members, and connect with the wider organ community as an ambassador of the university.”
In addition to her numerous US performances, Robinson has performed internationally in England, Denmark, France, and Germany. Her playing has been broadcast multiple times on American Public Media’s Pipedreams, Pipedreams LIVE!, and Philadelphia-based public radio station WRTI’s Wanamaker Organ Hour. She has been a featured performer at conventions of the Organ Historical Society, the East Texas Pipe Organ Festival, and the American Guild of Organists (AGO). She performed on the closing concert at the 2022 National AGO Convention in Seattle, collaborating with Seattle Pro Musica on choral and organ works including James MacMillan’s Cantos Sagrados.
Robinson is a laureate of the National Young Artists Competition in Organ Performance (NYACOP), held as part of the 2018 AGO convention in Kansas City. She holds first prize from the 11th annual Albert Schweitzer Organ Festival in 2008 and from the 10th annual West Chester University Organ Competition in 2010. She was a semifinalist in the 2014 Dublin International Organ Competition. In 2016, she was chosen as one of The Diapason’s “20 Under 30” promising young organists in the United States.
“Dr. Robinson is a spectacular performer, a deeply compelling teacher, and a scholar whose research interests are breaking new ground,” said Tiffany Ng, chair of the Department of Organ, associate professor of music, and university carillonist. “The department is proud to have this rising star join our community.”
She holds the post of organist and associate choirmaster at the Cathedral of St. Philip in Atlanta. There, under the direction of Canon Dale Adelmann, Robinson shares organ playing and accompanying responsibilities and leads the RSCM-based Chorister program. She is an active continuo player with early music ensembles, having performed at the Rochester Early Music Festival, San Francisco’s American Bach Soloists Academy, and now regularly with the Atlanta Baroque Orchestra. Robinson is an artist affiliate in organ instruction at Agnes Scott College (Decatur, GA) and maintains a private studio in the Atlanta area. She is represented in North America by Karen McFarlane Artists, Inc.
Robinson completed her undergraduate work at the Curtis Institute of Music, where she studied with Alan Morrison. Aided by a grant from the J. William Fulbright fellowship fund, she studied at the Conservatoire à Rayonnement Régional de Toulouse with Michel Bouvard and Jan Willem Jansen (organ) and Yasuko Bouvard (harpsichord). Robinson holds the doctor of musical arts and the master of music in organ performance and literature degrees from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied with David Higgs. Robinson also received the performer’s certificate and the advanced teaching certificate in theory pedagogy from Eastman.