Phil Robinson (electric and acoustic guitar, mandolin), based in Ithaca, has been active in the Upstate New York music scene since he arrived in 2000. After studying piano as a child and discovering he had perfect pitch, he branched out into electric guitar as a teenager, playing in various bands in high school and college. In grad school he started to learn classical guitar, and in Central New York and elsewhere he has been playing bluegrass, Celtic, contra dance, klezmer, Finnish, and Middle Eastern music.
Since everyone and their canine / grandmother / granny’s canine plays guitar in Ithaca, Phil decided to branch out and teach himself several other stringed instruments, such as the fiddle, mandolin, 5-string banjo, sitar, bağlama, and oud. He joined the Cornell Middle Eastern Music Ensemble in 2011 and performed often with them. After the Ensemble paused a few years ago, he regularly performs with Taksim Ithaca, a Middle Eastern music and belly dancing group. Other groups include the O’Shanigans (contra dance), Metku (Finnish), and Hip Check (classic rock). He often sits in with Traonach to play guitar at their traditional Irish sessions in Ithaca