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Victor Hill was born in Pittsburgh and received his musical training there from his first piano lessons at age four through his graduation from Carnegie Mellon University, where he majored in mathematics, but also completed a four-year program of music theory and composition under Nikolai Lopatnikoff and Roland Leich, and in Dalcroze Eurythmics with Marta Sanchez. During his senior year he had the unusual distinction of holding a part-time Faculty appointment in music theory while still an undergraduate in mathematics.
He went on to do graduate work at the University of Wisconsin on Woodrow Wilson and Danforth Graduate Fellowships, and on National Science Foundation Research Grants. While in graduate school he continued his organ and harpsichord studies and played many recitals, including the first performance ever given at the University of Wisconsin of the complete Art of Fugue by J. S. Bach. In 1966 he received his Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Oregon (as a student of Charles W. Curtis) and was also awarded the first Performer's Certificate in Harpsichord to be granted by the University's School of Music. His organ teachers included Vernon de Tar (New York) and James Evans (Pittsburgh). His harpsichord study was with Alice Ehlers, James Tallis, and (in Amsterdam) Gustav Leonhardt.
Dr. Hill is the Thomas T. Read Professor of Mathematics, Emeritus, at Williams College (Massachusetts), where he was also Harpsichordist-Organist in his own college-sponsored concert series. Since his retirement in 2006 from Williams, he has continued in his concert career. From 1972 to 1996 he was Organist-Choirmaster of St. John's Episcopal Church in Williamstown. Since 1982 he has served as Archivist of the Association of Anglican Musicians, an international organization of professionals in the Episcopal Church, the Anglican Church of Canada, and the Church of England. In 1996 he was appointed to the Editorial Board of the Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians and in 1998 became the Association's Reviewer of Recordings. He has played more than 900 concerts throughout the United States and in Europe.
His principal mathematical interests are in group representation theory and in history of mathematics; he also taught courses in mathematical logic, mathematics of finance, and English literature. He is the author of Groups, Representations, and Characters (Hafner/Macmillan 1975) and Groups and Characters (Chapman & Hall, 2000); he has published scholarly articles in both mathematics and music. His multi-media lecture-recital "Mathematical Aspects of the Music of Bach" has been given throughout the country, including at national meetings. In 1988 he was Visiting Professor of Mathematics and Artist-in-Residence at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta; he returned to Georgia Tech for 1991-92 as Visiting Professor of Mathematics. He has also held visiting appointments at Carnegie Mellon, SUNY-Albany, North Adams State College (Mass.), and the University of Oregon.
Dr. Hill has two children, Victoria Hill Resnick (Kenyon College '93) and Christopher Hill (Georgia Tech '98), and two granddaughters. As an Eagle Scout (1955), he particularly enjoys swimming and canoeing at his summer home on a lake in Sturbridge, Mass.