Robin Grant was born in Bilston, West Midlands, UK. He studied composition with Anthony Gilbert at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester and was awarded the William Humphreys Dayas Prize and the Edward Hecht Prize for Composition. Visiting tutors included Harrison Birtwistle and Simon Bainbridge. Since graduating in 1986 he has worked as a freelance composer.
Robin's output and range of compositions has been large and varied, including opera, orchestral and chamber works, song cycles, large scale cantatas, community and educational projects and music for around fifty theatre productions. He has also composed instrumental pieces for students, published by the Associated Board, Chester Music, Faber, Boosey & Hawkes, Brass Wind and Goodmusic and featured in exam syllabi world wide.
In 1992 he was awarded the John Ireland Prize by the Worshipful Company of Musicians, in 1993 the Bill Warman Prize by the Birmingham Conservatoire, and in 1994 Robin was awarded a post-graduate diploma (distinction) in composition by the Birmingham Conservatoire. Since then he has held a part-time teaching post at the Conservatoire where his classes include composition, orchestration, computer notation software applications and twentieth century music analysis at both under-graduate and post-graduate levels. In 1996 he was awarded the John Clementi Collard Fellowship by the Worshipful Company of Musicians and in 1999 Robin was made an Honorary Member of Birmingham Conservatoire.