Robin MacMillan has had a unique dual career as an oboist and collaborative pianist, in both Europe and Canada. She currently plays 2nd oboe and English Horn with the Winnipeg Symphony, and is a member of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra. Since joining the WSO in 2006 she has been a soloist in Copland’s “Quiet City”, and Sibelius’ “The Swan of Tuonela”, as well as with Musik Barock. She has also played with the Rochester Philharmonic, the National Ballet of Canada, the Windsor Symphony, and numerous Viennese orchestras.

Robin was a longtime resident of Vienna, where she had an active and varied career as a freelance oboist, playing with orchestras such as the Frauenkammerorchester, Klangforum, Vereinigte Bühnen, the Kammeroper, and the Vienna Symphonic Orchestra Project. She was also a studio sessions player for Austrian pop singers. As a soloist and chamber musician, she performed on Austrian radio (ORF), and at leading Viennese concert halls including the Brahms Saal, Konzerthaus, Schönberg Centre, as well as the Bruckner Saal (Linz) and the Steierische Herbst Contemporary Music Festival (Graz). She has toured throughout Europe and the Far East with Viennese orchestras.

Robin is also an accomplished pianist. She holds a Masters in Accompanying & Chamber Music from the University of Michigan, where she studied with Martin Katz. As a collaborative pianist and vocal coach in Vienna, she served on the faculties of both the Universität (Hochschule) für Musik, and Theater an der Wien. She has toured Quebec with Jeunesses Musicales, and through France, Austria and Cyprus. Robin has performed at the Purcell Room (Royal Festival Hall), Festival Aix-en-Provence, the Canadian Cultural Centres in Paris and Brussels, and on the CBC. She was a Tanglewood Accompanying Fellow, and a scholarship student at the Banff Academy of Singing, and Music Academy of the West. She also received a Rotary Foundation Scholarship to study piano, oboe, and Baroque oboe at the Vienna Universität für Musik .

Robin shifted her career focus more fully to the oboe in 2004, leaving her full-time collaborative piano position at the Vienna Universität to pursue a Doctorate in Oboe Performance at the Eastman School of Music. While at Eastman on full scholarship, she taught Oboe Methods and Baroque Oboe, and was nominated for an Excellence in Teaching Award. She was also a faculty member at Roberts Wesleyan University and Hochstein Community Music School. Following completion of her DMA, Robin was hired by Eastman as a Visiting Instructor for Baroque Oboe. She commuted back to Eastman to teach after winning her position with the WSO in 2006. Her principal oboe teachers were Richard Killmer (Eastman), John Ferrillo (Boston Symphony) and Shelley Heron (Detroit Symphony). Her English Horn mentors include Gunther Lorenz (Vienna Philharmonic), Felix Kraus (Cleveland Orchestra) and Carolyn Hove (L.A. Philharmonic). She also studied Baroque oboe with Marie Wolf (Concentus Musicus Wien).