Having graduated from Oxford University with a double first class honours degree in music in 1979, Robert went on to study piano and composition at the Royal College of Music. In 1981 he was chosen as one of the Greater London Arts Associations’s Young Musicians of the Year and over the next five years gave regular recitals as a pianist at the Wigmore Hall, Fairfield Hall, the Purcell Room, the Aldeburgh Festival and on BBC Radio 3.
Early on Robert established a reputation as a composer for the theatre. From 1986 to 1989 he was a Musical Director at The Royal National Theatre, and he has composed scores for productions in the West End and on Broadway (including The Merchant of Venice, directed by Sir Peter Hall and with Dustin Hoffman as Shylock). He has also composed for the Royal Shakespeare Company. Other theatre credits include a production of Tom Stoppard’s On The Razzle at the Chichester Festival Theatre (May 2001).
Film credits include John Schlesinger’s Cold Comfort Farm, starring Ian McKellen, Stephen Fry, Rufus Sewell and Joanna Lumley, and most recently (2004) the Dutch family film Spoon. Robert has had a long association with director Terence Davies, for whom he worked as musical director on the films Distant Voices, Still Lives (starring Pete Postlethwaite); The Long Day Closes; and The Neon Bible, starring Gena Rowlands. Other film credits include On the Black Hill (BFI/C4) and Scala’s Vicious Circles.
Recent television drama credits include three series of the BBC's Inspector Lynley Mysteries and the thriller The Safe House (Alibi Productions for ITV). Robert’s music for the BBC series Between the Lines was nominated for a BAFTA Award. Other TV credits include Simon Gray’s Unnatural Pursuits, starring Alan Bates, and The Bullion Boys starring David Jason, the last two of these both Emmy Award winners.