Composer and clarinetist, Carol Robinson has a multifaceted musical life. Equally at ease in the classical and experimental realms, she performs in major concert halls and international festivals (Wien Modern, Ars Musica, RomaEuropa, MaerzMusik, Huddersfield, Archipel, Angelica, Musica Contemporanea, etc.).

In addition to working closely with composers, she pursues the new in more alternative contexts, collaborating with video artists, photographers, and musicians from diverse horizons. The freely converging musical world of her group SLEEPING IN VILNA (with Mike Ladd – poetry, Dave Randall – guitar, Dirk Rothbrust – drums, CD - WHY WASTE TIME on Ayler Records) is typical of what interests her. Improvisation is her passion.

Carol Robinson plays all types and sizes of clarinets, including more exotic instruments such as the Lithuanian birbyne.

She began composing by writing for her own music theater productions, subsequently receiving commissions for concert pieces, installations, radio, dance and film productions. Her works often combine acoustic sounds with electronics, and her musical aesthetic is strongly influenced by a fascination for aleatoric systems. In 2008, she was awarded a composition fellowship from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation.

Her works have been recorded by the Hessischer Rundfunk, Saarlandischer Rundfunk, Lithuanian National Radio, and Radio France. A CD of her composition Billows, for clarinets and live electronics, was released on PLUSH. Cross-Currents, an aleatoric musical system intended for installation on personal computers, was released on SHIIIN, with support from IRCAM.

Other recent releases include solo monograph recordings of music by Giacinto Scelsi, Morton Feldman, Luigi Nono, and Luciano Berio for MODE, Phil Niblock for TOUCH as well as classical music and jazz for SYRIUS, BTL and NATO.

Particularly interested in dance, she has collaborated with choreographers Susan Buirge, Nadège MacLeay, Thierry Niang, François Verret, and Young Ho Nam.

Carol Robinson was born in the United States and graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory. After receiving a H.H. Wooley grant to study contemporary repertory in Paris, she settled in France.