Rob Nairn holds the position of 'Master Musician in Residence' at the Elder Conservatorium of Music in Adelaide, having previous taught on the faculty of the Juilliard School for 11 years, at Penn State University for 18 years where he was a Distinguished Professor, and at Melbourne University where he was head of the Early Music. Studio and of graduate studies. A Past-president of the International Society of Bassists he hosted the Society’s 2009 Convention at Penn State.

Rob received his Bachelor of Music with distinction from the Canberra School of Music and a post-graduate diploma from the Berlin Musikhochschule by courtesy of a two-year DAAD German Government Scholarship. His teachers have included Klaus Stoll, Tom Martin, and Max McBride. In 2008 he was awarded a Howard Foundation Fellowship from Brown University.

Rob has performed with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the London Philharmonic, the English, Scottish and Australian Chamber Orchestras, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, The Oslo Philharmonic, The Gothenburg Symphony, The Baltimore Symphony, The Halle Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta, and the Sydney, Adelaide, Queensland, Western Australian and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, the Australia Ensemble, The Australian World Orchestra and the Australian String Quartet.

Rob has recorded for Deutsche Grammaphon, Sony Classical , EMI, Naxos, Tall Poppies, RCA and ABC Classics.

In Historical Performance he is currently principal bass with the Australian Brandenburg Orchestra, having previous held the position of principal bass with the Handel Haydn Society of Boston for 14 years. He has worked with the Boston Early Music Festival, Juilliard Baroque, Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, English Baroque Soloists, Smithsonian Chamber Players, Concerto Caledonia, Ironwood, Washington Bach Consort, the Aulos Ensemble, Rebel, Florilegium, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, ARCO, Adelaide Baroque and the Muffat Collective. In 2009 he received a Recognition Award for Historical Performance from the International Society of Bassists. His recording of Mozart’s concert aria “Per Questra Bell Mano” with the Handel and Haydn Society and bass Eric Owens has garnered substantial critical acclaim; Gramophone magazine called it “all one could wish for” and Classic FM magazine selected it as its Record of the Month.

Active in commissioning new works he has premiered more than forty compositions featuring the bass. In these performances he has worked both alone and with such groups as the London Sinfonietta, Gruppe Neue Musik Berlin, Australysis, the Music Theatre of Wales, and the Sydney Alpha Ensemble. In 2009 he premiered a new concerto by Barry Conyngham and by Doug Bailliet in 2016. He has performed recitals in Europe, Scandinavia, China, the U.S. and Australia.