OCA Music Lunchtime Concert

Our online lunchtime concert series begins on 24 September at 12.30, with Tony Roberts performing on guitar. The concerts will be open to all of OCA, staff and students, and will be an informal opportunity to share performances with a supportive audience. 

Tony Roberts – Biography

Tony was born in 1956 in West London where he lived until going to the University of Southampton in 1974 to read Chemistry. Following a period of post-doctoral research at the Royal Institution in London, he worked for over thirty years as a research scientist for the consumer goods company Unilever. Now retired, he lives on the Wirral with his wife Linda. They have three daughters and four grandchildren.

Tony’s father was a semi-professional jazz musician, and he introduced him to music at the age of five. He initially studied the classical accordion and cello but abandoned both in favour of the guitar which he fell in love with as a young teenager. Initially focusing on rhythm guitar, he would spend most Saturday evenings pumping out “four to the bar” in his father’s jazz band. On going to university, he switched to acoustic guitar, playing contemporary folk and blues. Later, he returned to playing electric guitar and was a member of The Fondant Mice, a covers band which played several gigs in the Merseyside area including as support to Jeff Scott Soto at Liverpool’s Cavern club.

From around 2005, Tony has focused almost exclusively on classical guitar, taking lessons from Paul Costello, and attending masterclasses with John Arran and Craig Ogden. He is an active member of several guitar societies in the Northwest of England, plays duets with fellow guitarist Tim Price, and is a member of the Chester Guitar Ensemble. From 2017, he has studied music with the Open College of the Arts.

Tony plays a guitar made in 1981 by the master luthier Paulino Bernabé (1932 – 2007).

Everyone is Welcome!