Michael Finlay Robinson (born 3 March 1933) is an English composer, musicologist, and academic best known for his scholarly work on Italian opera, particularly Neapolitan opera of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Robinson was born in Gloucester. He earned Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Music, Master of Arts, and Doctor of Philosophy degrees from New College, Oxford. In October 2009 he obtained the Oxford Doctor of Music degree by examination. [1] He began his academic career in 1960 as Teacher of Harmony and Counterpoint at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama, Glasgow, before moving in 1961 to a Lectureship in Music at Durham University. [2]
In 1965, he emigrated to Canada to join the Music Faculty at McGill University in Montreal as Assistant Professor, and was promoted to Associate Professor in 1967. Returning to the United Kingdom in 1970, he joined the Music Department at University College, Cardiff (now Cardiff University) as Lecturer, becoming Senior Lecturer in 1976 and Professor in 1991. [3] He served as Head of Department from 1987 to 1994, retiring in 1994 and being named Professor Emeritus in 1995. [4]
Robinson’s research interests include seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Neapolitan music, opera studies, the sociology of music, opera house management, and theoretical aspects such as the concept of time in music. [5]
His research has been supported by grants from the Canada Council, the British Academy, the Leverhulme Foundation, the British Council, and the American Musicological Society. [2] He has presented papers and lectures at universities and conferences worldwide, and directed a graduate summer school course on Neapolitan music at the Autonomous University of Barcelona in 1992. [1]
Robinson has contributed reviews to The Musical Times , Music and Letters , Music Review, Haydn Yearbook, Times Literary Supplement , Early Music , The New Grove Dictionary of Opera , and The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians . [2]