Paul Robinson

Robinson, Paul

Paul (Evans) Robinson. Broadcaster-writer, conductor, administrator, double-bassist, b Toronto 21 Mar 1940; BA philosophy (Toronto) 1962, MA philosophy (Toronto) 1965. At the RCMT 1955-7 he studied theory with Weinzweig, double bass with Charles Rose and Gurney Titmarsh, and piano with Dolin. He studied double-bass 1957-60 with Frederick Zimmermann in New York, philosophy 1958-65 at the University of Toronto, and conducting in 1969 with Herbert von Karajan and Bruno Maderna at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, obtaining a conducting diploma from the latter. He taught 1966-9 at the University of Hong Kong and 1970-2 at the State U of New York at Fredonia.

Robinson had conducted the Society of the Friends of New Music 1960-1 at the University of Toronto. He resumed conducting in Hong Kong as music director 1967-9 of the Victoria Chamber Symphony. Appointed music director of radio station CJRT-FM in 1972, he began to conduct the CJRT Orchestra in 1975. With that orchestra he has presented the premieres of works by several Canadian composers. His books Karajan (Toronto 1975), Stokowski (Toronto 1977), Solti (Toronto 1979), and Bernstein (Toronto 1982), are drawn from the CJRT-FM radio series 'The Art of the Conductor' and have been published also in Great Britain, the USA, and Japan.

Robinson succeeded Franz Kraemer as director of music programming 1979-80 for Toronto Arts Productions (St Lawrence Centre). In 1989 he became artistic director and conductor of the Toronto Philharmonic Orchestra. He has also conducted orchestras in the USA, Hungary, Mexico, and Venezuela. With Ofra Harnoy and the Toronto Chamber Orchestra for RCA (BMG) he has recorded cello concertos by Haydn and Vivaldi, six of which are world-premiere recordings (see Discography for Harnoy).