Robert Fokkens is a South African composer based in the UK. His music is performed and broadcast internationally, published by Composers Edition and Tetractys Publishing, and recorded on the Nimbus, Métier, Herald, Orchid, Naxos and other labels.
The Times has described Robert’s music as having its ‘own engaging quirkiness’. It works across boundaries of genre, style and nationality, using techniques and materials learned from an array of musical worlds, including traditional South African music, creating music of twisted cycles and microtonal inflections described as ‘hilarious’, ‘sad [and] strange…express[ing] more than anything else they played’ (Times). He writes chamber, orchestral and vocal music - in both concert and dramatic contexts. Most recently, his opera Bhekizizwe was premiered on the BBC Wales/Festival of Voice ‘Gwyl 2021’ online festival, and his duo Pier Music was performed at the Penarth Chamber Music Festival by WNO Orchestra Concert Master David Adams and BBC NOW principal cellist Alice Neary.
Elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2014 for his significant contribution to the music profession, Robert is Reader in Composition and directs the Contemporary Music Group at Cardiff University.