Dr. Robyn Rocklein

Dr. Rocklein is a professional musician, scholar, and a teacher of music, communications, and history. During her doctoral studies at Arizona State University, a top 20 music school, her primary emphasis was in vocal performance, and her secondary emphasis was in theory. During her master’s studies at Arizona State University, her primary emphasis was in vocal performance, and her secondary emphasis was in theatre history and performance. Rocklein’s primary area of expertise concerning academic research is the artistic adaptations of women of antiquity in ancient Greek drama and mythology. In 2024, Brill Publishing Company published Rocklein’s paper, “Shattered Female Virtue: Dejanira as Depicted in Handel’s Hercules,” Chapter 13, in the book Hercules Performed, the final volume of the quartet published in Brill’s Metaforms series. Her secondary area of expertise concerning academic research is the late 19th Century Shadow Theatre of the Chat Noir. Accordingly, Dr. Rocklein’s research not only explores the music indicative of this period in France but also the fine art and literary expressions of how this early cabaret music influenced patrons of the cabaret such as Henri Rivière, Claude Debussy, and Paul Verlaine.

Dr. Rocklein is an award-winning educator and has a teaching background which includes courses in music, history, and beginning theory and pedagogy, as well as applied voice and private piano lessons. In addition to music and theater, she has also taught English, intelligence operations, and criminal justice, for the Department of Defense and Cochise College. She has taught courses on music history, English, art and theatre at University of South Florida, University of Tampa, Ringling College of Art and Design. Further, she has taught applied voice and music courses to music majors (both undergraduate and graduate students) at the University of South Florida, University of Tampa, University of Arizona and at Arizona State University. She has presented original research findings and guest lectured for the College Music Society, the University of Leeds (UK), the University of Utah Department of Languages and Literature, and the Classical Association of the Middle West and South. In addition to teaching, she has 20 hours of instruction in English as a Second Language Training through Covenant Life Presbyterian Church in Sarasota, Florida. For the past six years, Dr. Rocklein assisted with verbal placement exams for all incoming international students at Ringling College and led the icebreakers and student orientation of international students every fall. 

In addition to her academic endeavors, she is an award-winning mezzo soprano and has appeared as a soloist in England, Germany, and Austria, as well as throughout the US. She moved from Arizona to Florida in December 2012 and recently moved from Florida to Tennessee.