Robert Saxton was born in London in 1953. Guidance from Benjamin Britten and Elisabeth Lutyens was followed by study at Cambridge and Oxford Universities with Robin Holloway and Robert Sherlaw Johnson respectively, and also with Luciano Berio. He won the Gaudeamus International Composers Prize in Holland at twenty-one and was Fulbright Arts Fellow at Princeton, USA in 1986. He became a DMus (Oxon) in 1992 and was elected an Hon Fellow of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge in 2015.
He has written works for the BBC (TV, Proms and Radio), LSO, LPO, ECO, London Sinfonietta, Nash Ensemble, Northern Sinfonia, Antara, Arditti, Chilingirian and Kreutzer String Quartets, 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, the choir of Merton College Oxford, Susan Milan, Susan Bradshaw and Richard Rodney Bennett, Simon Desbruslais, Clare Hammond. Edward Wickham and The Clerks’ Group, Teresa Cahill, Leon Fleisher, Tasmin Little, Steven Isserlis, Mstislav Rostropovich, Peter Sheppard Skærved, John Wallace and the Raphael Wallfisch and John York duo.
He was Head of Composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and the Royal Academy of Music (London) then Professor of Composition at Oxford University and tutorial fellow in music at Worcester College from 1999 until his retirement in 2021. He has been Composer-in Association at the Purcell School for Young Musicians since 2013 and was appointed Hon Research Fellow at the Royal Academy of Music in 2021. His music from 1972 until 1998 was published by Chester/Music Sales and, since then, by the University of York Music Press and Ricordi (Berlin). Recordings have appeared on the Sony Classical, Hyperion, Metier, EMI , NMC, Divine Art, Nimbus, Toccata Classics and Signum labels.
Recent works include the opera The Wandering Jew commissioned by the BBC; a song cycle for baritone Roderick Williams; Hortus Musicae, for pianist Clare Hammond; The Resurrection of the Soldiers, commissioned by the 2016 Presteigne Festival, the English Symphony Orchestra and Kenneth Woods; Shakespeare Scenes, commissioned by the Orchestra of the Swan and trumpeter Simon Desbruslais; A Hymn to the Thames for oboist James Turnbull and St Paul’s Sinfonia; Suite for violinist Madeleine Mitchell and pianist Clare Hammond; Fantasy Pieces for the Fidelio Trio; Scenes from the Epic of Gilgamesh, premiered by the English Symphony Orchestra at Music at Oxford in March 2023 and released on CD in 2024; and Sonata - Reflections in Time for violinist Peter Sheppard Skærved, released on Metier in May 2025. Latest commissions include a major organ cycle for Jonathan Clinch; a piano cycle for David Palmer and a series of miniatures for solo violin for Peter Sheppard-Skærved.
Recent recordings include a CD of piano music on Toccata Classics; Shakespeare Scenes on Signum; a portrait CD on Metier; Scenes from the Epic of Gilgamesh and The Resurrection of the Soldiers on Nimbus and String Quartets Nos. 3 and 4 and Reflections in Time on Metier.
Robert Saxton is married to the soprano Teresa Cahill.
Photo: Katie Vandyck
