Robin O'Neill

Robin O'Neill (bassoon) enjoys a busy and varied career as a chamber musician, conductor, soloist, teacher and orchestral principal. After studying at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama he became a founder member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe where he stayed for four years before becoming principal bassoonist with the English Chamber Orchestra when he was twenty four. As a chamber musician Robin O'Neill is a Grammy nominated recording artist. He is a founder member of the Gaudier Ensemble and London Winds. He has appeared as a chamber music partner with Mikhail Pletnev, Mitsuko Uchida, Christoph Eschenbach, Pascal Roge, Stephen Kovasovich, Boris Beresovsky, Elizabeth Leonskaya, Barry Douglas and Joshua Bell. He now has made fifteen CDs of solo and chamber music recording for the Decca, Phillips and Hyperion labels. He has appeared as soloist with conductors such as Alexander Schneider, Pinchas Zuckerman, Jeffrey Tate, Paavo Berglund, Trevor Pinnock, Leopold Hager and David Zinman. Robin O'Neill is currently principal bassoonist with the Philharmonia Orchestra and a professor at the Guildhall School of Music.

In his parallel career as a conductor Robin O'Neill regularly conducts the English Chamber Orchestra. Recent performances include the festivals of Windsor, Chelsea, Eton and Boxgrove conducting, amongst other things, his own arrangement of Webern's Langsamer Satz for string orchestra. He made his debut conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra at last year's Rimini Festival and also has an onging relationship with the Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa, Japan, with whom he appears this year conducting Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and The Messiah.