Carol Robinson is equally at ease in the classical and experimental realms. Clarinetist, she performs regularly in major concert halls and international festivals (such as Musiques en Scène, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Biennale di Venezia, Darmstadt, Musica, Huddersfield, Ars Musica, Engadiner Konzertwochen, Frankfurt Feste, Steirischer Herbst, RomaEuropa, Hörgänge Wien, Musical Action, Sons d’Hiver, Musica Contemporanea, Meiringer Festwochen, Festival d’Automne à Paris, MaerzMuzik, Archipel, Wien Modern...) and has premiered numerous compositions, working closely with many composers.

Performing on various kinds of clarinets, her experience playing other types of clarinets, such as the Lithuanian birbyne or the Egyptian argoul, contributes to her understanding and approach to modern clarinet playing.

Passionate about improvisation, she performs in the most open situations and has founded group Sleeping in Vilna with Mike Ladd, Dave Randall and Dirk Rothbrust.

Recently released recordings 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. She also co-produced a CD of music for the Armenian doudouk with Armand Amar.

While maintaining a busy performance schedule, she began writing her own music theater pieces, which were presented in France and Germany. To meet the increasingly precise musical demands of these productions and to further define her personal musical world, she subsequently devoted more and more of her time to composition. She writes for concert, dance productions, installations, radio and film, and has received numerous commissions. Carol Robinson assimilates the creative possibilities offered by live or recorded electronic music into her compositional world, combining acoustic sounds and electronic treatment. The preoccupation with putting a specific sound into a given space leads her to prepare installations and explore open aleotoric compositions as well. She often collaborates with chorographers such as Susan Buirge, Nadège MacLeay, Thierry Niang, François Verret and Young Ho Nam. In 2008, she was awarded a composition fellowship from the Civitella Ranieri Foundation.

The Hessischer Rundfunk, Saarlandischer Rundfunk, Lithuanian National Radio, and Radio France have recorded various works. Her composition Billows, for clarinets and live electronics, was released on PLUSH in 2009. With support from IRCAM, a CD-rom of the aleatoric musical system Cross-Currents is currently in production for the label Shiiin.

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