David Crook has taught music history and musicology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison since 1990. His work as a writer and editor has focussed on European music of the late 16th and early 17th centuries and the religious and political institutions that shaped its production and reception. The recipient of research grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst, and the Wisconsin Institute for Research in the Humanities, Professor Crook is author of Orlando di Lasso's Magnificats for Counter-Reformation Munich (Princeton University Press, 1994) and co-editor of Orlando di Lasso: The Complete Motets (A-R Editions, 1995–2006).

Professor Crook received his Ph.D. from Princeton University, his M.A. from the University of California at Riverside, and his B.M. from the University of Redlands.