Robert Zielinski is an Australian fiddle player, collector of rare tunes, composer, violin maker and above all a highly regarded traditional Irish fiddle player. He first heard the fiddle when he was seven and recalls being transfixed by the sound. He started playing at eight years old by ear with a family friend, Hilda Blakey. As luck would have it, his neighbour Eddie Lowe was a fine Irish Australian fiddle player and his wife Karen played the concertina. Every week Robert would learn a tune from Eddie and there was often a session afterwards with them both. Eddie brought young Robert to perform at the Hills and Armadale folk clubs, where Robert remembers a very rich tradition of singers from England, Scotland, Australia, Ireland and Wales. 

At ten years old, Eddie brought Robert to Toodyay Folk Festival and it was there that Robert met Sean Doherty. Sean from Co. Mayo is a much loved and instrumental figure in the Perth Irish community, having taught many to play, giving so much of his time and energy. Sean Doherty, Ray Deeley, Aidan Cruise, Kevin Saunders and Margaret Doherty were having a session on the street and while Robert was standing there listening, Sean spotted him and asked him to play a tune. From that day on, Sean took Robert under his wing and introduced him to Perths Irish community who kind of adopted him. Every Friday night Robert went to Sean’s house to learn tunes and here Sean gave him a record of Paddy Canny, PJ Hayes, Peader O’Loughlin and Bridie Lafferty, Robert’s favourite album. He also gave him a recording of Michael Coleman. Almost every weekend there were Ceilidh band outings with Sean and the above mentioned, and house sessions and parties. All this while Sean was telling Robert about a great fiddle player who lived down in Rockingham called Mick Doherty. Mick wasn’t playing at the time due to a very tragic event in the family. When Robert was 12 he finally met Mick in a house session in Seans. Sean used Robert to kind of bring Mick out again. They hit it off immediately and Robert recalls being totally captivated by Mick’s tone, his command, the swing and also great sense of wildness and depth in his music. Mick asked Robert to visit him and immediately sorted him out with a great fiddle that cost $200 at the time. To give some idea of the draw that Mick had on him, Robert would ride his bike 80 km round trip with the fiddle on his back to see Mick. They became great friends right up to when Mick passed away at 90 years of age in 2014. On this first visit, Mick told Robert they needed to have a chat man to man up in the house as oppose to the shed where they normally played. Mick, leaning over and looking right through Robert, told him all about his family of travelling fiddle players, story tellers and tinsmiths from Co. Donegal. He then told Robert not to mention this to anyone as he didn't want them to know, a tactic Mick learnt in London to avoid notoriety around the pub scene where he only wanted to go and play a tune as Mick. Robert recalls a funny story when James Byrne heard Robert in 1992 playing a highland. He enquired where he did get it, to which Robert replied his friend Mick Doherty. James immediately said he must be one of the Doherty’s to which Robert clammed up much to James gentle amusement. James then said he spent a great night sitting on a bag of turf listening to Mick some twenty five years before on Mick’s last trip home. He then said to Robert he needed to get every tune than man knows.

On a visit to Melbourne when Robert was 15, he met and heard the Fitzgerald’s, Joe, Paddy and John RIP. On the plane coming back, Sean suggested to Robert he should go to Ireland and immediately Robert remembers thinking that’s what he would do. He worked on an orchard for two years after leaving school and at 17 left for Ireland not knowing anyone there.