Robin Sharp, violin

Violinist Robin Sharp is a solo performer, chamber musician, concertmaster, and teacher. Ms. Sharp performs as Concertmaster of the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra with conductor Benjamin Simon, and is on the music faculty at Stanford University as Full-time Lecturer in Violin.

A frequent guest artist, she will appear as soloist this season with the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, and the Palo Alto Chamber Orchestra on tour in Spain and Portugal. Her chamber music engagements this season include ongoing collaborations with the St. Michael Trio, Prospect Park Concerts in Pasadena, and the Haydn Project, a quartet that is exploring all of the Haydn string quartets. Ms. Sharp has appeared in recital at many prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall in New York, the Musikverein in Vienna, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the National Music Hall in Taipei, and the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco where she performed on Jascha Heifetz's Guarneri Del Gesu violin.

In 2010, a violin concerto called “Haili Lirico” was written for Ms. Sharp by composer Gabriela Lena Frank, in remembrance of her father, Terry Sharp. Another career highlight was in January 1998 when Ms. Sharp represented Carnegie Hall in their Rising Stars Series, when she and her then duo partner Jeremy Denk played a recital at Carnegie's Weill Recital Hall following a European tour. The duo also performed on Carnegie Hall's main stage under the guidance of Isaac Stern. Additionally, Ms. Sharp was a Laureate prize winner of the 1994 Indianapolis Violin Competition and was featured in a documentary about the competition.

She has participated in music festivals worldwide, including California Summer Music, the Musikalischer Sommer Festival in Germany, the Marlboro Music Festival, the Aspen Music Festival, the Sandor Vegh masterclasses at Prussia Cove, and the Isaac Stern Seminar in New York. Ms. Sharp has formerly served as first violinist of the Ives String Quartet, which toured nationally, and was based in California. Ms. Sharp played in the San Francisco Symphony violin sections for several seasons, and is currently an active substitute violinist with them. She formerly served as concertmaster for the Berkeley Symphony with conductor Kent Nagano for six seasons, and was a guest concertmaster for both a festival concert in Germany under the baton of conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy, and also as guest concertmaster with the Seattle Symphony with conductor Gerard Schwartz. Among her favorite collaborators in performance have been such artists as Dimitri Ashkenazy, Jon Nakamatsu, and Lori Lack with whom she recorded the CD “Selected Shorts”.

Currently teaching at Stanford University and maintaining a private violin studio, Ms. Sharp has formerly taught at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in both the Preparatory and Collegiate divisions, at Santa Clara University, and at Sacramento State University of California. For over a decade, Ms. Sharp was on the faculty of California Summer Music Festival.