FIONA ROBSON

Cello

Canadian cellist Fiona Robson completed her Master’s degree in cello performance at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris in 2022, in the class of Marc Coppey and Pauline Bartissol . Previously she studied with Matt Haimovitz at McGill University, and performed in Haimovitz’s Grammy-nominated cello ensemble Uccello in Canada, the US and Germany. Fiona was born in London, Ontario, where she studied cello with Julia MacGregor, and has since performed as a soloist with the London Youth Orchestra, London Community Orchestra, and London Concert Band. 

Particularly enamoured with string quartet playing, she was a founding member of the Lafontaine String Quartet, with whom she won the 2018 McGill University chamber music competition and was a semi-finalist of the 2019 Fischoff National Chamber Music Competition. In 2021, Fiona and pianist Elsa Bonnet formed Duo Névé, and were soon invited to the prestigious Concours International de Musique de Chambre de Lyon in April 2022.

Excited by the exploration of contemporary music, Fiona commissioned an original piano reduction for Philip Glass’ Cello Concerto No. 1 in 2018, which she performed for the composer at Scotia Festival of Music. In 2023, Fiona commissioned a new piece for cello and piano from Canadian composer Chris Goddard. The result, Murch Studies, is an evocative four-movement suite inspired by the work of Chris’s great uncle, Canadian painter Walter Tandy Murch, and was premiered with pianist Raymond Truong in Toronto in March 2024. This performance was part of a five-stop recital tour that was generously sponsored by the Canadian Council for the Arts, and you can read more about the tour program, Sound and Colour: Pictures at a 21st Century Exhibition, on Fiona’s website here. The European premiere of Murch Studies will take place during the 2024/25 season, with Elsa Bonnet.

Fiona plays a cello made in 2020 by German luthier Ragnar Hayn.