Autobiography of the colorful life and times of Dr. Bill Robinson, including adventures in prep school, kayaking, psychedelic explorations of inner space, five years in prison, building an experiment in instrumental transcommunication, composing exotic classical music, and getting a doctorate in plasma physics.
About the Author: Bill Robinson was born to a musical family in Denton, Texas in 1955. He started piano lessons at age three and violin at ten, and moved to Massachusetts in 1961. Composition started in 1972 while a student at Phillips Academy Andover. After that came a year at Eastman School of Music, then many years at NTSU in Denton (now UNT). He earned a BM in composition there in 1984. After the Rainbow Gathering in the North Carolina mountains in 1987, Bill moved to the Charlotte area and has been in North Carolina ever since, except for two years on the road in the Southwest. Bill came to Raleigh in 2001 to study physics at NCSU, and earned a BS in 2004. He graduated with a PhD in May 2010, and has joined the physics faculty at NCSU. He has constructed a novel plasma confinement experiment investigating ball lightning. He is active in the study and practice of yoga, Hinduism, Dances of Universal Peace, and mystical practices of many kinds, and is a devotee of Neem Karoli Baba. This strongly influences his music, most of which is devotional in nature even if not explicitly indicated. His compositions include woodwind, brass, string, piano, and synthesizer quintets; a recorder and a string quartet; songs, sacred and satirical; Mantra Cantata for chorus and orchestra; eleven sonatas for solo violin or viola; two pieces for jazz band; a piano sonata; sonatas for cello, flute, and violin with piano accompaniment; a duet for violin and cello; a trio for violin, oboe and piano, another for clarinet, cello and piano, and another for soprano, violin and piano; a quartet for violin, clarinet, cello and piano; concertos for violin, piano, and string quartet with orchestra; a song for nonet or chamber orchestra and baritone; and a sextet for clarinet and strings. Playing violin had to stop in 1981 due to arthritis. Despite a couple of attempts to start again, he is unable to perform and is limited to synthesis and submitting scores to other musicians. The music is intended for the general audience that goes to classical music concerts; it is not designed to be enjoyed only by new music specialists. Since 2006, Eric Pritchard has introduced the music to some of the best musicians in the Raleigh and Durham area, and concerts are starting to result. Beginning in 2004 Bill has produced nine CDs independently, and has a website at billrobinsonmusic.com that has all his scores and recordings, as well as more biographical information and his activities in physics.