Robert Anderson

Dr. Robert Michael Anderson is a musicologist whose research focuses on the intersections of music, politics, and national identity in German-speaking Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century. He completed his Ph.D. in musicology and minor in German studies at the University of North Texas in 2022. He also holds a master of studies in musicology from the University of Oxford and a bachelor of arts in music from Loyola University Chicago, with further studies at the University of Vienna. His dissertation, “Ideal Hausmusik: Brahms’s Vocal Quartets (Opp. 31, 52, 64, 65, 92, 103, and 112) and the Politics of Domestic Music ca. 1848-1900,” recovers a largely forgotten discourse about domestic music-making and national identity that flourished in German-speaking Europe in the second half of the nineteenth century and demonstrates how it influenced the conception and reception of Brahms’s vocal quartets during the same period.  This research has been supported by the Karl Geiringer Scholarship from the American Brahms Society and an Ernst Mach Worldwide Grant from the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research. He has published articles in the American Brahms Society Newsletter and the Musical Times and presented at national and international conferences, including the annual meetings of the American Musicological Society and the Austrian Studies Association.  Dr. Anderson has taught a broad range of courses, including music appreciation courses for nonmajors and music minors, undergraduate music history surveys and seminars, and graduate-level research courses and musicology seminars. In his free time, he enjoys exploring local haunts and dives, trying to keep his plants and flowers alive, and spending time with his four cats.