London Winds, English Chamber Orchestra & Robin O'Neill
Biography London Winds, English Chamber Orchestra & Robin O'Neill
Robin O’Neill
is a conductor, orchestrator, arranger and educator. During his career he has conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra and Chorus (with whom he gave the orchestra’s first performance in London’s newly refurbished Royal Festival Hall), London Philharmonic Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony, Bogota Philharmonic, Medellin Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Trondheim Symphony Orchestra, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Nordic Chamber Orchestra, City of London Sinfonia, Orchestra Ensemble Kanazawa Japan, Japan Choral Association, Orchestra Città Aperta and the Orchestras of the Guildhall School of Music, Royal Academy of Music and the Royal College of Music and Malmö Academy of Music.
Robin is also principal bassoon of the Philharmonia Orchestra. He held the same position with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the English Chamber Orchestra. He is also a member of the Wigmore Soloists, London Winds, Gaudier Ensemble and is professor of bassoon at the Royal Academy of Music.
Robin has collaborated with musicians such as Mikhail Pletnev, Boris Berezovsky, Mitsuko Uchida, Christoph Eschenbach, Pascal Rogé, Stephen Kovacevich, Alexander Madžar, Pinchas Zukerman, Salvatore Accardo, Isabelle Faust, Gautier Capuçon, Michael Collins, Alina Ibragimova, the Lars Jansson Jazz Trio and actors such as Jeremy Irons, Julian Glover, Paul McGann and Hugh Dancy. He has also performed by invitation for His Royal Highness Prince Charles the Prince of Wales. He was professor of conducting at the Royal College of Music from 2008 till 2015.
Robin O’Neill is a Grammy-Nominated recording artist for his work with György Ligeti. In 2015 he was awarded Honourary Membership of the Royal Academy of Music (Hon RAM), an award limited to 300 living musicians.
The English Chamber Orchestra
has been performing across the UK and globally for over 60 years and is the most recorded chamber orchestra in the world. From its beginning, the ECO has worked consistently with the most significant musical figures in classical music starting in 1960 with its first patron Benjamin Britten. The ECO celebrates and builds upon its tradition of maintaining the highest international musical standards, nurturing new talent and focusing on the ‘best of British’ music and musicianship. The orchestra has toured the UK and abroad with artists such as Benjamin Britten, Daniel Barenboim, Dame Janet Baker, Colin Davis, Placido Domingo, Jacqueline du Pre, Kiri te Kanawa, Yehudi Menuhin, Luciano Pavarotti, Murray Perahia, Itzhak Perlman, Andre Previn, Karl Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Georg Solti, Mitsuko Uchida, Maxim Vengerov and Pinchas Zukerman.
Recent tours have included Bermuda, USA, Mexico, Finland, France, Turkey, Switzerland, Italy, Germany, Slovenia and Austria, as well as concerts across the UK and at London’s Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Kings Place and Cadogan Hall.
HM King Charles III has been the Patron of the ECO since 1977 and the orchestra has performed at royal weddings, birthday celebrations and other events including the first concert ever to be broadcast from Buckingham Palace. The orchestra has also recorded many successful film soundtracks including Dario Marianelli’s prizewinning scores for Atonement and Pride and Prejudice.
The ECO is proud of its outreach programme, Close Encounters, which takes music into communities and schools around the UK and abroad. In 2019, the ECO became the Professional Orchestra in Partnership at Christ’s Hospital School in West Sussex, a collaboration involving side-by-side performance and one-to-one tuition. In 2022, the orchestra has already delivered some exciting and far-reaching projects including The Thames Music Makers project in conjunction with Hammersmith & Fulham Council at Riverside Studios.
The future promises a further expansion of the programme, bringing musical experiences to even more young people.
