Robin Toan is one of New Zealand’s leading young composers. She graduated from the University of Auckland with a Bachelor of Music degree in composition and performance clarinet in 2004. In 2005 she achieved first class honours in composition at the University of Auckland studying under John Elmsly and Eve de Castro-Robinson. The 23 year old from Auckland is currently completing her Master of Music degree under the supervision of John Psathas at the New Zealand School of Music.

She accumulated a number of awards and commissions in 2006 which include winning the Edwin Carr Foundation Scholarship for $20,000 to further her studies in Europe, winning the SOUNZ Community Commission to write a fanfare for the Manukau City Symphony Orchestra, winning the ADAM International Cello Competition Young Composers Competition and becoming the joint recipient of the TODD/NZSO Corporation Young Composers Award. She will also travel to Paris for the premiere of a new work for string orchestra with the aid of the France/New Zealand Friendship Fund.

Last year she held the position of inaugural composer-in-residence of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra National Youth Orchestra. Robin was recognised internationally receiving an Honorific Mention Award for her sextet in the 2005 Frederic Mompou International Award for the Young Composer Competition of the Joventuts Musicals de Barcelona. She was also awarded the inaugural Australasian Performing Rights Association New Zealand Professional Development Award in 2005. This award is also assisting her travels to Europe in 2007 to further her studies in Composition.