Robert Nosow grew up in Okemos, Michigan, where he was awarded first stand in the Michigan All-State Orchestra his senior year. He graduated from the University of Arizona in Tucson with a B.A. in English literature, and played in the symphony. When his first job after college turned out to be in the Arizona Opera Orchestra, he decided to change fields, attending the University of North Texas. He studied violoncello with Adolfo Odnoposoff, and musicology with Dr. Lester Brothers, earning a M.M. degree in both fields. After further graduate studies in musicology at Princeton University, he entered the doctoral program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he received the Ph.D. in music in 1992, and was awarded the Glen Haydon Dissertation Prize.

Dr. Nosow has played in numerous orchestras, including the Arizona Opera Orchestra, La Orquesta Méxicana de la Juventud in Mexico City, the Corpus Christi Symphony in Texas, and the Durham, Raleigh, and Wilmington Symphonies in North Carolina. He became fourth chair in the Greensboro Symphony and performed in the Greensboro Symphony String Quartet. In addition to Maestro Odnoposoff, Dr. Nosow studied with Douglas Graves, Peter Rejto, Robert Marsh, and Gordon Epperson. Since 1995, he has taught private lessons in Cary, Jacksonville, and Knightdale, North Carolina, and in Carrollton and Flower Mound, Texas, beginning with cello, then expanding to violin and viola. He never stops exploring new music and techniques to pass on to his students.

In addition to his career as a freelance cellist, Dr. Nosow has an international reputation as a music historian, publishing research primarily on music before 1600. In 1993–94, he was admitted as a Fellow at Villa I Tatti, the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies in Florence. Dr. Nosow edited the three Violoncello Concertos by C.P.E. Bach for The Complete Works in 2008. His second book, Hobrecht and His Singers, appeared with Brepols Publishers in March 2022. In his spare time, Robert Nosow is a published composer, writing two dozen works for community ensembles and students. He has performed frequently in churches in Cary and Clinton, North Carolina, Flower Mound, Texas, and Bruges, Belgium. He now lives in Wake County, North Carolina, with his wife and son.