
Robert Atchison was born in London and studied music
from a young age.
His teachers included Sheila Nelson, Bronsilaw Gimpel at the Royal Northern
College of Music, Emmanuel Hurwitz at the Royal Academy of Music and
Maurice Hasson.
In 1982 he was a finalist in the Abbado International Competition in
Milan, Italy.
Mr. Atchison has given concerto performances and recitals in the USA,
South
America, France, Italy, Spain, Germany and Ireland. In 1983 Mr. Atchison
made his concerto debut at the Queen Elizabeth Hall playing the Beethoven
concerto
and in 1984 at the Barbican with the Vivaldi Four Seasons. He joined
the Philharmonia Orchestra in 1984 and remained there until 1990. From
1991 to 1997 he was a member of all three orchestras of the Academy
of St. Martin in the Fields, and wasco-principal to Iona Brown. In 1993
he was appointed Director of the Spanish Chamber Orchestra, appearing
frequently as soloist. Since then he
has had a busy chamber and solo career. Mr. Atchison is Violinist with
the critically acclaimed London
Piano Trio and tours regularly with them throughout the UK, Europe
and the USA. Plans for 2009 - 10 include a tour of Canada, the United
States and the Far East. He is also in demand as a freelance leader
in the United Kingdom and Europe. Mr. Atchison’s recordings include
the Telemann Twelve Fantasias and the complete Sonatas and Partitas
of J. S. Bach for the Altamira label. Also on Altamira he has made many
recordings with the London Piano Trio including the recently released
Complete Piano Trios of Armstrong Gibbs and Donald Tovey on the Toccata
Label.
The Tovey trios have recently been nominated for a Grammy award.
Future recordings for 2009-11 include two violin and piano recital albums
and the two Mendelssohn concertos and the world premiere recording of
the George MacFarren violin concerto for Dutton Records. Mr. Atchison
was recently appointed as the Artistic Director of the new Gibbs Festival
at Danbury, Essex. The Festival’s inaugural season was 2008.
From 2006 - 2009 he was Artistic Director of the International Music
Series at the Certosa di Capri, Italy.
As a conductor Mr Atchison has conducted many orchestras including the
Academy of St Martin in the Fields and the Philippine Philharmonic.
He records regularly for Toccata and Dutton Records and a number of
recordings are planned as a conductor over the next three years . He
also holds the posts of conductor of the Danbury Festival Orchestra.
Mr Atchison has recently worked very closely with Sir Neville Marriner
on a number of projects.
His own orchestra the Altamira Chamber Orchestra was launched in the
summer of 2009.