Ann Turner Robinson was an English soprano

Soprano

A soprano is a voice type with a vocal range from approximately middle C to "high A" in choral music, or to "soprano C" or higher in operatic music. In four-part chorale style harmony, the soprano takes the highest part, which usually encompasses the melody...

 of the 18th century. She was the youngest daughter of William Turner

William Turner (composer)

William Turner was a composer and countertenor of the Baroque era. A contemporary of John Blow and Henry Purcell, he is best remembered for his verse anthems, of which over forty survive...

, a composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 and countertenor

Countertenor

A countertenor is a male singing voice whose vocal range is equivalent to that of a contralto, mezzo-soprano, or a soprano, usually through use of falsetto, or far more rarely than normal, modal voice. A pre-pubescent male who has this ability is called a treble...

 who was a contemporary of Henry Purcell

Henry Purcell

Henry Purcell – 21 November 1695), was an English organist and Baroque composer of secular and sacred music. Although Purcell incorporated Italian and French stylistic elements into his compositions, his legacy was a uniquely English form of Baroque music...

, and is best remembered for her association with the composer George Frideric Handel

George Frideric Handel

George Frideric Handel was a German-British Baroque composer, famous for his operas, oratorios, anthems and organ concertos. Handel was born in 1685, in a family indifferent to music...

, in whose opera

Opera

Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...

s she sang.

Her first public performances were in 1718: in the April of that year she sang a cantata by Ariosti at the King's Theatre, and the year after she performed in a private concert, accompanied by Handel, as a replacement for Jane Barbier

Jane Barbier

Jane Barbier was an English contralto of the 18th century, best known for her performances in the operas of George Frederic Handel. She created the roles of Dorinda and Arcano , and also sang in Rinaldo...

. The librettist John Hughes commented at the time that .
Evidently the concert did nothing to harm Handel's opinion of her, for in 1720 she performed (alongside Anastasia Robinson

Anastasia Robinson

Anastasia Robinson was an English soprano, later contralto, of the Baroque era. She is best remembered for her association with the composer George Frideric Handel, in whose operas she sang.-Early life and initial career:...

, with whom she is often confused) in the first season of the Royal Academy, where she performed in Port's Numitore, Domenico Scarlatti

Domenico Scarlatti

Giuseppe Domenico Scarlatti was an Italian composer who spent much of his life in the service of the Portuguese and Spanish royal families. He is classified as a Baroque composer chronologically, although his music was influential in the development of the Classical style...

's Narciso, and, most famously, created the role of Polissena in Handel's Radamisto

Radamisto (Handel)

Radamisto is an opera in three acts by George Frideric Handel to an Italian libretto by Nicola Francesco Haym, based on L'amor tirannico, o Zenobia by Domenico Lalli and Zenobia by Matteo Noris...

, a role that shows Handel's confidence in her abilities: the role calls for a range of e' to a and for some virtuosic excellence at a high tessitura.

It is likely that Turner Robinson was the "Mrs Robinson" who would regularly sing between the acts in the dramas at Drury Lane (late 1725 to late 1726), and who performed seven of Handel's operatic arias in her benefit on 28th April 1726. In a later benefit in March 1729 she included no fewer than 14 of Handel's works (the majority of which had been originally composed for Faustina Bordoni

Faustina Bordoni

Faustina Bordoni was an Italian mezzo-soprano.-Early career:She was born in Venice and brought up under the protection of the aristocratic brother composers Alessandro and Benedetto Marcello. Her singing teacher was another composer, Michelangelo Gasparini...

 or Francesca Cuzzoni

Francesca Cuzzoni

Francesca Cuzzoni was an Italian operatic soprano of the Baroque era.-Early career:Cuzzoni was born in Parma. Her father, Angelo, was a professional violinist, and her singing teacher was Francesco Lanzi. She made her debut in her home city in 1714, singing in La virtù coronata, o Il Fernando by...

). In 1732 she sang in the first London performances of Handel's oratorios, as an Israelite woman in Esther.