William Robin

William Robin is an assistant professor of musicology at the University of Maryland’s School of Music. He completed a Ph.D. in musicology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2016 with a dissertation analyzing American new music in the twenty-first century through the lens of “indie classical,” focusing on New Amsterdam Records and the ensemble yMusic. His first book, “Industry: Bang on a Can and New Music in the Marketplace,” was published in February 2021 with Oxford University Press, and examines the new-music festival Bang on a Can and their participation in major institutional shifts in contemporary music in the 1980s and 1990s.

William Robin’s research explores how institutions structure the creation, dissemination and reception of contemporary classical music in the United States. His research interests also include early American hymnody, Stravinsky and the European postwar avant-garde.

William Robin is a regular contributor to The New York Times. He hosts the podcast "Sound Expertise," in which he interviews fellow music scholars about their research and why it matters. He also has written for The New Yorker, NewMusicBox and Bandcamp.