Short biography

PAST

Robert Metcalf was born and brought up in England. He studied in London and Paris before moving in the 1970s to West-Berlin in the then divided Germany.

Pursuing his interest in languages and social affairs he trained as a social worker in Berlin and worked for many years as a counsellor in the field of drug addiction.

His hobby as a song-writer was given a boost when he won a German-language song contest in the 1980s and in the following years he made more frequent appearances as an amateur in various Berlin clubs. Encouraged by radio commissions and appearances on German Children´s Television he left his steady job in 1990 to become a full-time professional singer-songwriter.

PRESENT

Robert has released numerous CDs, initially on the "Deutsche Grammophon" label, more recently for various publishers such as Jumbo, Fischer (Sauerländer) Universal (Karussell) and Random House.

He is at home both as a musical entertainer for children and as a singer-songwriter for adult audiences, performing his songs both in German and English.

Several songs have appeared as video clips on Children´s Television and are frequently aired on radio. Robert's live appearances have taken him to venues in all parts of Germany, Switzerland and Belgium. He has played in locations ranging from the former Berlin Wintergarten cabaret to the classical Gewandhaus in Leipzig. In 2005 he won the LEOPOLD prize awarded by the Association of German Music Schools for his CD "Zahlen, bitte", which also appears in English as "Music counts". In 2013 and again in 2015 his was also nominated for the LEOPOLD award for his CDs for 1 to 3 year-olds.

Robert has worked as a narrator for audio books and has toured as actor/singer with musical productions. He is also regularly engaged by educational and sporting institutions offering workshops for teachers and other professionals in the field of early learning.

Since 2007 he has contributed regularly to the prize-winning Children´s Television Programm "Die Sendung mit dem Elefanten".