Faculty & Staff

N. Scott Robinson

Part-Time Faculty

N. Scott Robinson received his bachelor's degree in Music/Anthropology from Rutgers University, master's degree in Ethnomusicology from Kent State University, and is ABD for Ph.D. in Musicology-Ethnomusicology/American History-Popular Culture Studies. Robinson’s education includes performance, composition, and scholarship, having first studied jazz at Berklee College of Music and percussion at William Paterson University. At Rutgers, his teachers included Noel DaCosta, Phil Corner, Daniel Goode, Keith Copland, Kenny Baron, Bill Fielder, William Moersch, and Robert Benford. His teachers of ethnomusicology, musicology, and culture studies at Kent State were Terry Miller, William Kenney, Robert West, and Halim El-Dabh. He studied privately with Glen Velez, Naná Vasconcelos, Malcolm Dalglish, Peter Erskine, Cosmas Magaya, Chaka Chawasarira, T.V. Vasan, Amrit Nataraj, and B. Shreesundarkumar.

Robinson’s ethnomusicological work appears in The Continuum Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, The Concise Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, World Music: A Global Journey, Dance in My Life, and as contributing author on Hindustani music for Listen to This with Mark Evan Bonds. His reviews and ethnographic interviews are published in Percussive Notes, Modern Drummer, Rhythm Music, Dulcimer Players News, and Batera & Percussão. He has presented for Society of Ethnomusicology, International Society for Improvised Music, North American Frame Drum Association, International Native American-World Flute Association, and Percussive Arts Society. Robinson has conducted fieldwork in India, Japan, South Korea, Italy, and USA.

Robinson performs on the Grammy Award-winning Harlem Renaissance by Benny Carter.Wind & Fireby Mark Holland and N. Scott Robinson won a 2010 Indian Summer Music Award in Native American music. He has 13 compositions published by HoneyRock Publishing, has performed on 40 CDs/DVDs, and has worked with Paul Winter Consort, Glen Velez, Larry Coryell, Jeanie Bryson, Art Baron, Howard Levy, Jamey Haddad, Michael Formanek, Simon Shaheen, Bill Miller, R. Carlos Nakai, Joseph FireCrow, George Crumb, John Cage, Michael Colgrass, Cleveland Orchestra, New Jersey Percussion Ensemble, Marilyn Horne, and Peter Mayer. He has performed at national and international festivals and venues in numerous countries.

As an Adjunct II with Associate Graduate Status in the Literature and Instrumental Music Divisions, Robinson has taught courses for undergraduate/graduate majors and gen-eds including Music of India, Music in the U.S.: Analytic Emphasis, Elements and History of Rock Music, Introduction to Music in the U.S., American Music, World Music: The Americas, Africa, and West Europe, World Music: East Europe, Asia, and Middle East, Independent Music Research, Applied Music-World Percussion, and World Music Ensemble. He was recipient of a Senior Performing Arts Fellowship from American Institute of Indian Studies-University of Chicago.