Robert Smissen

Bob was raised but an arrow’s flight from Sherwood Forest and educated at Chethams and Guildhall schools of music. Within that era were happy years in the European Community Youth Orchestra before being cast into the profession. A short stint in Newcastle with The Northern Sinfonia as a green principal, then back to the smoke and the Academy of St Martin- in-the-Fields where he has held court as principal viola for over 30 years.

The Academy has afforded Bob such a varied diet of music making all over the globe, including the opportunity to play concertos, chamber music and work with inspirational musicians from many backgrounds and generations. The Pro Arte Piano Quartet, I Musicanti, ‘Anna, Bob and Hugh’ trio and coaching the next generation are wonderful musical distractions from a life punctuated with too many dogs and a high maintenance wife…..