Rob Jones – The Grass Is Greener

Rob Jones (b. 1993) is a British composer who is coming to the end of his studies at Birmingham Conservatoire (UK) where he has been studying composition with Joe Cutler, Sean Clancy and
Howard Skempton and saxophone with Naomi Sullivan. Rob started composing as part of the National Youth Orchestra’s Composers’ Course in 2011 when he studied with Anna Meredith and Larry Goves. He was highly commended in the BBC Young Composers Competition in 2011 and 2012. During his time at Birmingham Conservatoire Rob has written for such groups as the Birmingham Conservatoire Symphony and Wind Orchestras, the Birmingham Conservatoire Saxophone and Brass Ensembles, the Schubert Ensemble and pianist/organist Charles Matthews. He has also worked closely with his ensemble Runaway Boomerang which is a group that uses elements of flexible scoring to perform not only his own work but new pieces by Birmingham based composers.
Rob is also a keen collaborator and he took part in the Erasmus IICS Project in Izmir, which brought together artists from around Europe to create a new piece in a community space. He has also
recently collaborated with designer/maker Catrin Wright and together they produced a brand new puppet opera, which premiered in March 2015. Rob has also worked as a composer with the Vintage Rambert Dance Company in London.

I wrote this piece for Dutch contemporary music group Orkest de Ereprijs after being invited to attend the 21st Annual Young Composers Meeting in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands. The text for
the piece was taken from the question I have repeatedly been asked over the last year: what are you going to do after you graduate from university?
The recording is taken from the concert given by Orkest de Ereprijs on Friday 27th February in Apeldoorn, The Netherlands.