Robin Russell Gaiser earned her BA in English at The College of William and Mary, where she also sang and played with a folk-rock group, both on campus and in venues in Richmond, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. After graduation she taught writing and literature in Fairfax County, Virginia; then, while raising her family, she gave private lessons in guitar and dulcimer and performed publicly under the auspices of the Fairfax County Council of the Arts. She also sang in classical choirs and joined The Mill Run Dulcimer Band, recording seven albums now included in the Smithsonian collection. With her children grown, Robin earned an M.A. in psychology from Marymount University and worked as a guidance counselor for eight years. Then, after relocating to upstate N.Y. and becoming caregiver-and bedside musician-for her dying father, she enrolled in a certification program for therapeutic musicians. As a Certified Music Practitioner (CMP), she is trained to provide live, bedside, one-on-one acoustic music to critically and chronically ill, elderly, and dying patients. After forty-three years in northern Virginia and eight years in upstate New York, Robin and her husband relocated to Asheville, N.C., where she has pursued both her music and her writing careers. Currently pursuing a graduate certificate in Narrative Medicine at Lenoir-Rhyne University's Graduate Center, Robin also volunteers as a musician at homeless shelters, for homebound seniors, and for nonprofit fundraisers. She and her husband are the parents of one daughter and two sons, and grandparents of three.
