Robin was violist with the celebrated Lindsay String Quartet between 1985 and 2005, and with the Primrose Piano Quartet from 2007 till 2015. He was Head of Chamber Music at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire from 2014 till 2021. He now performs as a soloist and freelance chamber musician, teaches, gives master classes and composes. His arrangements for four violas of unaccompanied Bach are becoming acclaimed and much played.

Robin Ireland was a student at Cambridge University and at the Eastman School of Music, Rochester, New York. He had a short spell as leader of the Las Palmas Symphony Orchestra and subsequently became a founder member of the Piano Quartet, Domus, which toured with its own portable concert hall (a geodesic dome) as well as having great success in more conventional venues. He has broadcast as a soloist on BBC Radio 3, performed Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Liverpool Philharmonic and the London Mozart Players, and has in his repertoire most of the major works for viola. During 2011 he was chamber music coach at the Yehudi Menuhin School. His orchestral experience includes working as guest principal viola with the CBSO, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, RLPO and Opera North.

Robin’s compositions include a String Quartet which was premiered and recorded by the Lindsay String Quartet in 2005, and Pairings 1, 2 and 3 for viola with violin, cello and a second viola. More recently he has composed works for viola and double bass, two violas and a Duo for Violin and Cello. His set of 12 Viola Etudes were published by Spartan Press in 2014 and are now available through Clifton Edition. In 2025 he was commissioned to write a piece for massed violas to be premiered by the competitors of the International Tertis Viola Competition.

In 2024 Robin completed his recording of the six Bach Cello Suites and a CD of his more recent compositions. Earlier recordings include CDs of unaccompanied Bach transcriptions, including the Chaconne (Quartz Records), the Shostakovich Sonata for Viola and Piano (with Tim Horton, on Nimbus) and the two Brahms Sonatas for Viola and Piano alongside Schubert’s ‘Arpeggione’ Sonata, also with Tim Horton on Nimbus.

Since 2021, Robin has lived in Britanny and is creating opportunities to make music locally as well as continuing to visit the UK regularly for concerts and teaching.