Rob Richardson grew up in Lenzie, near Glasgow, and started his musical career on piano and cornet at the age of 10, changing from cornet to baritone at the age of 13. Initially learning with William Tennant, Rob played for the then-named Kirkintilloch Junior Band (now Kirkintilloch Kelvin Brass), before graduating to the Kirkintilloch Band in 1996, eventually playing Principal Euphonium with them. Throughout his formative years in Scotland, Rob had great success as a soloist, winning the Scottish Junior and Scottish Schools solo titles several times, and also taking the Junior Baritone title at the National Euphonium and Baritone Conference in 1998. He was both Principal Baritone and Principal Euphonium of the National Youth Brass Band of Scotland, and Principal Baritone for each of his seven courses with the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain.
In 2001, Rob moved to Manchester to commence studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, at the same time joining the Fodens band on 1st Baritone. After a spell at Fodens, Rob joined the Black Dyke Band on 1st Baritone in January 2002. In that same year Rob changed courses to a BA (Hons) in Middle Eastern Languages (Arabic and Turkish) at the University of Manchester, from which he graduated with first class honours in July 2006.
Rob left Black Dyke in the summer of 2004 due to his university course’s requirement of spending the third year abroad, which was spent in Alexandria, Egypt and Izmir, Turkey. Upon his return from the Middle East, Rob joined the Fairey Band, and after a happy few months with them accepted the offer to join the YBS Band on Principal Baritone in November 2005, a position that he held until 2008 before joining the Grimethorpe Colliery Band on Principal Baritone. Amongst this, Rob graduated with an MA in Translation Studies from the University of Manchester in September 2007.
Rob moved to London in January 2009 to join the Ministry of Defence, where he spent three years working on counter-terrorism issues. He joined Zone One Brass immediately after moving to London, with whom he still plays 1st Baritone. In January 2012 he left government and began work as a business intelligence analyst and corporate investigator with a firm in Central London.
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