Robert Saxton was born in London in 1953 and started composing at the age of six. Guidance in early years from Benjamin Britten and Elisabeth Lutyens was followed by periods of study at both Cambridge and Oxford Universities with Robin Holloway and Robert Sherlaw Johnson respectively, and also with Luciano Berio. He won the Gaudeamus International Composers Award in the Netherlands at the age of 21. In 1986 he was awarded the Fulbright Arts Fellowship to the USA, where he was in residence at Princeton and was assistant to Oliver Knussen at Tanglewood. In 1995 he co-directed the composers’ course on Hoy, with Sir Peter Maxwell Davies. He has directed the composers’ course at Dartington International Summer School on several occasions and was artistic director of Opera Lab. He has also been a regular member of the BBC TV 4 (digital) Proms broadcasting commentary team and was a member of the Southbank Centre board for nine years.

Robert Saxton has written works for the BBC (TV, Proms and Radio), LSO, LPO, ECO, London Sinfonietta, Nash Ensemble, Chilingirian String Quartet, Saint 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, Teresa Cahill, Leon Fleisher, Steven Isserlis, Mstislav Rostropovich, John Wallace[disambiguation needed] 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, Oxford and is a Trustee of the Mendelssohn/Boise Foundation. He was awarded a doctorate of music at Oxford in 1992. His music from 1972 until 1998 was published by Chester/Music Sales, and since then by UYMP and Ricordi. Recordings have appeared on the Sony Classical, Hyperion, Metier, EMI, NMC and Divine Art labels.

Robert Saxton’s Quartet No. 3 was commissioned by the Southbank Centre, London and premiered by the Arditti Quartet in May 2011. He will write a song cycle for the Oxford Lieder Festival for 2012 and a trumpet concerto for Simon Desbruslais and the Orchestra of the Swan in 2013. His radio opera, The Wandering Jew, was released on NMC in June 2011.

Works include Ring Time (1994), A Yardstick to the Stars (1995), Canticum Luminis (1995), Music for St Catharine for organ (1998), a sonata for solo cello (2000), Five Motets (2003), a radio opera The Wandering Jew (2010), Quartet No. 3 (2011).