Robin Ireland was born in 1954, son of viola player Patrick Ireland and pianist Peggy Gray. He was a chorister at St Paul's Cathedral Choir School and read music at Cambridge University. After further study in America, he had a short spell as leader of the Las Palmas Symphony Orchestra and subsequently became a founder member of Domus, which toured with its own portable concert hall (a geodesic dome) as well as having great success in more conventional venues. 

Robin is well known as the violist of the Lindsay String Quartet, with whom he played for twenty years, until the group disbanded in July 2005. The Lindsays were known throughout the world for their intense and moving performances, and they made over fifty CDs for ASV, covering virtually all the major string quartet repertoire. In October 2005 Robin joined the Sorrel Quartet, and in January 2006 he became a member of the Primrose Piano Quartet, joining his former cellist colleague from the Lindsays. He has a duo partnership with the pianist Gretel Dowdeswell and is a member of the Anton Stadler piano/clarinet/viola trio. He works on an occasional basis with other chamber music groups and has recently deputised as principal viola in the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Opera North.

Robin is an experienced soloist and has appeared with the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Mozart Players. Recently he performed the Walton and Bartok viola concertos and Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante. He has broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and gives recitals, including performances of the standard viola and piano repertoire and of music for solo viola, the latter often featuring transcriptions for viola of Bach's unaccompanied violin or cello works. Robin's CD of unaccompanied Bach, including the Chaconne, is available on the Quartz label.

Since 1999, composing has become an increasingly important part of Robin’s life and, in 2005, he was commissioned by Sheffield University to write a string quartet for its centenary celebrations. This work, played by the Lindsays, features on a CD alongside Pairings (his three duos for viola and cello, two violas, and violin and viola), released on the Meridian label in September 2005. In November of the same year, he received funding from the Arts Council to collaborate with the poet Elizabeth Barrett and composed seventeen tone poems for solo viola which interleave with poems from her collection The Bat Detector.

Robin is a committed and enthusiastic teacher of violin and viola. He was a part-time lecturer in Manchester University's Music Department for 20 years and now teaches violin and viola at Sheffield University and Birmingham Conservatoire. He has given talks and seminars in Manchester and Sheffield, and also, recently, in Liverpool and Glasgow. He has initiated an ongoing series of viola workshops to promote the viola and to improve the standard of viola playing, and tutors string orchestra workshops in mainly baroque music. He is an experienced chamber music coach and masterclass tutor, and is skilled at leading composition classes and groups experimenting with improvisation. He recently worked in this capacity for Pro Corda, which has an unequalled reputation for running chamber music courses for young talented players. As a writer, he has contributed to the BBC Music Magazine.

Robin plays on an Amati viola made in Cremona in 1630.

Robin can be contacted on 07980 275368.

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