history

He began his musical career at the age of five learning the piano and by six he was composing. However, his greatest love was always arranging, whether English folk tunes or contemporary songs. By the time Robin turned Seventeen he was running his own choir.

Robin trained at the Royal College of Music in London, but it was the years of playing and arranging for the National Jazz Youth Orchestra (NYJO) that set his career flying. Very soon Robin was a major player in the British session scene. Indeed, having met Toni Visconti the legendary producer of David Bowie, T.Rex and many other famous artists, Robin was given the job as arranger on the Elaine Paige albums – ‘Stages’ - ‘Cinema’-‘Love Hurts” which have become hallmark records of their time. This set a trend of great variety; see Robins’ discography to see the multi directional talent that has developed, everything from pure classical to complete roots R’ n B.

In the USA Robin has worked and written for the likes of Earth Wind and Fire, Gladys Knight, Grover Washington Junior and Ramsey Lewis.

Working in Australia he achieved great successes as the producer and writer for the Rockmelons, Margaret Urlich and Tommy Emmanuel.

Again successes in Japan included – Seiko, Yuji Toriyama and Boowy –

Another facet of Robin’s abilities is as a Musical Director. When Mike Oldfield revived the Tubular Bells legacy with TB2 he asked Robin to organised and conduct it. This culminated in a televised concert of Edinburgh Castle and involved vast amounts of technical and computerised equipment as well as the live playing of some of Britain’s finest musicians. Many components could have drifted apart during the concerts at any time, it was Robins job to keep the whole performance together. The success of TB2 lead to premiers at the Royal Albert Hall, Carnegie Hall, and concerts throughout Europe and the United States of America.

With the emergence of classical crossover Robins background was given the chance to truly shine. Resulting in producing Cieli De Toscana for Andrea Bocelli, The Christmas Album for Roberto Alagna, Ti Adoro for Pavarotti and Russo Amore for Fillipa Giordana.

As the artist Robin Youngsmith - Robin achieved great success on the Classic Chillout Album.