Robert Saxton - biography

Robert Saxton has written works for the BBC (TV, Proms and Radio), LSO, LPO, ECO, London Sinfonietta, Nash Ensemble, Chilingirian String Quartet, St Paul Chamber Orchestra (USA), Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival/Opera North, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, City of London, Three Choirs and Lichfield Festivals, Stephen Darlington and the choir of Christ Church Cathedral Oxford, Susan Milan, Susan Bradshaw and Richard Rodney Bennett, Edward Wickham and The Clerks’ Group, Teresa Cahill, Leon Fleisher, Steven Isserlis,  Mstislav Rostropovich, John Wallace and the Raphael Wallfisch and John York duo.

Robert Saxton was Head of Composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (1991-97) and Head of Composition and Contemporary Music at the Royal Academy of Music from 1998-99. He is currently Professor of Composition and Tutorial Fellow in Music at Worcester College at the University of Oxford and is a Trustee of the Mendelssohn/Boise Foundation. He became a DMus at Oxford in 1992. His music from 1972 until 1998 was published by Chester/Music Sales and, since then, by the University of York Music Press and Ricordi. Recordings have appeared on the Sony Classical, Hyperion, Metier, EMI , NMC and Divine Art labels.

Robert Saxton has recently completed Quartet No. 3 for the Arditti String Quartet commissioned by the South Bank Centre, London and premiered at the Queen Elizabeth Hall to great critical acclaim in May 2011. His anthem ‘O Living Love’ has been selected for inclusion in the ‘Choirbook for the Queen’ and ‘Yardstick To The Stars’ will feature at the Cheltenham Festival in July 2011 as part of the RPS  ‘Encore’ scheme. His radio opera, The Wandering Jew, was released on NMC in June 2011. Future commissions include an organ work for sound festival in Aberdeen and a song cycle for the Oxford Lieder Festival in 2012.