A champion of new music as well as the classics, he has given the world premieres of concertos by Judith Bingham, Diana Burrell, Piers Hellawell and Mark Boden. 

Rob has tirelessly pursued a particular passion for British clarinet music in concert and on disc, his Gramophone Award-winning account of Finzi’s Concerto and Gramophone Award-shortlisted Bax Sonatas being just two of a large collection of recordings of works by the great English Romantics.

He has performed and recorded with the Gould Piano Trio for thirty years, and their recording of Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time to mark the composer’s centenary was hailed by BBC Music Magazine as the ‘finest modern recording’ of this epic masterpiece. They commissioned Huw Watkins to compose ‘Four Fables’ in 2018, to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Corbridge Chamber Music Festival which they direct together in Northumberland.

Rob has explored the clarinet quintet repertoire with a number of the finest string quartets, including the Skampa Quartet (Brahms live on BBC Radio 3 from St George’s, Bristol) and Elias Quartet (many appearances including Schwarzenberg and Wigmore Hall), as well as concerts with the Mandelring, Marmen, Castalian, Maggini, Brodsky, Carducci, Sacconi and Callino Quartets.

Rob is clarinettist of Ensemble 360 and enjoys exploring chamber music of all kinds with them at their home in the Crucible, Sheffield and country-wide. He is also a member of Trio Meister Raro alongside violist Rachel Roberts and pianist Tim Horton.

Always keen to take on a challenge, Rob has performed Boulez’s epic ‘Dialogue de l’ombre double’ at Belfast Sonorities Festival in 2018, Manchester’s Stoller Hall in 2019 and Cardiff’s WhirlWinds Festival in 2022. Rob’s disc ‘Reawakened’ features concertos he himself unearthed by Iain Hamilton, Ruth Gipps and Richard Walthew, recorded with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and released in July 2020 by Champs Hill Records.

Rob’s most recent release was ‘Isotonic’ in July 2023 on Resonus Classics, which features four of his commissions from the past twenty-five years, including the clarinet concertos of Diana Burrell and Mark David Boden, recorded with the BBC Philharmonic. Before that, Rob released a disc of chamber music by Pamela Harrison ((the subject of an ongoing research project) in February 2023, also on Resonus, which was selected as one of Gramophone Magazine’s “best new classical albums”. Releases in 2024 will include Pierrot Lunaire with Ensemble 360 and soprano Claire Booth as well as a second volume of the chamber music and songs of Pamela Harrison.

Rob was principal clarinet of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales for over twenty years and has held the same position with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Royal Northern Sinfonia. A respected teacher and educator, he holds the post of Head of Woodwind Performance at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.