Staff profile

Rob King began studying the cello at the age of 5, with Jonathan Tunnell and then Michał Kaznowski (the latter at London's Royal College of Music). He was the Edmund Pigeon Scholar and recipient of a Music Exhibition at Hampton School from 2003.

From 2010, Rob attended the University of Durham, where he specialised further in musical techniques and composition, studying with Dr Richard Rijnvos and Dr Eric Egan. During his undergraduate studies, Rob wrote a number of experimental instrumental and electroacoustic pieces, but a chief interest (in composing choral music) was explored in his 2013 composition, ‘Requiem Fragment’, premiered by the Orlando Consort in Durham Castle.

After a career as a secondary school music teacher, during which he conducted research based on pupils for whom English was an additional language, Rob has elected to pursue a career in composition and academia.

Beginning his MA in 2017, Rob has worked with a number of ensembles, including Trio Atem, the Ives Ensemble, and members of Ensemble 7 Bridges (the latter of whom performed the world premiere of his piece dust hanging in the air suspended by shafts of light a boy watches).

Alongside his studies, Rob has also worked on scores for independent films, as well as commercial compositions. His first symphonic work is expected to be premiered in 2018/19.

He is delighted to be working with Dr Eric Egan again for his PhD, and to work for the first time with Prof. Nick Collins, to explore methods of algorithmic composition.

• Algorithm composition
• New notational methods
• Sociopolitical commentary through use of data in composition

Conference Paper

• King, R. (2019, December). ‘Music of the People’: Music From Data as Social Commentary. Presented at Proceedings of the 25th International Conference on Auditory Display (ICAD 2019), Newcastle-upon-Tyne

Working Paper

• Stevens, J. H., & King, R. (1973). A bibliography of Saudi Arabia
• King, R., & Stevens, J. H. (1973). A bibliography of Oman 1900-1970