Currently residing in Grand Rapids, Michigan, where she is primarily known as a jazz pianist/vocalist, Dr. Robin Connell is originally from Detroit and a GVSU alumnus. During the 1980s she led her own band and worked as a sidewoman in New York City. In 1990 she joined the summer jazz faculty at the Interlochen Arts Camp, discovered her love of teaching, and moved to Colorado where she completed her Doctor of Arts in Music Theory and Composition in 1999. Sought after as composer-arranger, Connell's commissioned and published works for big band include an original composition for the 1998 Massachusetts All-State Jazz Band (she also conducted the band). Other credits range from film scoring to vocal jazz arrangements to jazz pieces for the Metcalf Orff Ensemble (Illinois State University).

Connell's multiple awards include a one year jazz composition study grant and a one year jazz residency fellowship (both from the National Endowment for the Arts), two composition grants from the Colorado Arts Council and one from the Michigan Council of Arts and Humanities. She continues each summer as conductor of the high school jazz ensemble at Interlochen. During the school year Dr. Connell teaches music theory and jazz studies at Grand Rapids Community College (616-234-3375).