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.