Rosie Staniforth was brought up in Yorkshire, where she began playing the oboe at the age of nine. She read Modern Languages at the University of Oxford before being awarded a postgraduate scholarship to the Royal College of Music in London, where she studied with John Anderson and Michael Winfield, and gave the London premiere of the Horovitz Oboe Concerto.

She continued her studies with eminent oboist Maurice Bourgue at the Geneva Conservatoire and then at the Paris Conservatoire. Staniforth accepted a permanent position with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra in 1998 and was appointed to the teaching staff at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2003. She is a tutor for the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland and coaches on the Variations Chamber Music Course.