Dr Chika Robertson

PhD, MMus, BA, honARAM

As the recipient of numerous violin prizes, Chika Robertson was awarded fellowships to prestigious music festivals including Aspen, Tanglewood and the Mozarteum, working with distinguished conductors such as Ozawa, Tennstedt and Bernstein.

Chika studied the violin with Eudice Shapiro of the University of Southern California, where she was a Teaching Assistant, was awarded the Chamber Music Prize and received her MMus degree magna cum laude, and with Dorothy Delay of the Juilliard School. She played in the Hollywood film studios, led and managed the Schoenberg Institute's USC Contemporary Music Ensemble and was the operations manager and principal for the Los Angeles Chamber Players. She was raised in Spokane, Washington and benefited from first-rate musical tuition from an early age from Helen de la Fuente, Alan Bodman and Martin Beatus-Meier.

Following her arrival in England, she performed regularly with numerous highly acclaimed ensembles including the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Lontano and London Sinfonietta, giving many first performances in London and abroad both as a chamber musician and soloist.  She worked with esteemed composers such as Knussen, Adams, Henze, Pärt, Tavener, Tippett and Lutoslawski, and eminent conductors including Simon Rattle and Neville Mariner.  In 1999 she was granted her PhD in contemporary violin pedagogy and performing practice.

Dr. Robertson is passionate about education and the involvement of music throughout the curriculum, working with pupils of all ages and standards to develop and explore creative approaches to teaching and performing. She is the Outreach Director for Cranleigh School; Professor of Violin at the Royal Academy of Music, Junior Academy; and is a Diploma Examiner for the ABRSM (Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music).

Chika has led numerous orchestras as a violinist and is a popular adjudicator. She has initiated and directs several highly successful programmes, including 'Fiddle Fun' for teaching the violin to children from the age of 3, and 'SongTrees', an intergenerational music project that links children with their families and communities through musical memory and song, thus rediscovering and celebrating cultural heritage. 'SongTrees' has innovative related branch projects, including 'Sound Bites' (a 'healthy living' project funded by the Big Lottery's Chances4Change programme with NHS South East Coast) and 'ENRI-East' (funded by the European Commission towards cutting-edge research into music and identity, in collaboration with Oxford XXI).  She performs with the acclaimed pianist Elena Zozina and has presented 'Sound Beginning' concerts to babies, toddlers and parents together with the award-winning pianist Mikhail Kazakevich and Prof. Paul Robertson, with whom she is Joint Chief Executive of the Music Mind Spirit Trust. Chika Robertson plays an 18th-century Amati violin.