Rubens Askenar, Canary Islands-born but based in London, is a composer, researcher, professor of composition at the Royal Academy of Music in London and associate composer of Quantum Ensemble. His creative activity encompasses all kinds of genres and forms, emerging from experimentation and the creation of composition models based on multi-instrumental practice and technological development.

He has received commissions and participated in prestigious festivals and shows based on new music such as Mata Festival (New York), Gaudeamus, Muziekgebow (Amsterdam), Huddersfield (UK), reMusic (Rusia), Sampler Series (Barcelona), XI Festival de Ensembles, Conferences on Spanish Music (Madrid), Canary Islands International Music Festival, among many others. Recent commissions (2022) include Bronze Clinics, a series of percussion pieces commissioned by the Royal Academy of Music to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the institution. In situ, real-time composition, a commission by the experimental group Ensemble Resilience and Muziekgebow. Lloro del Vino. O alegoría de las heridas (Tears of Wine. Or allegory of wounds) is a large-scale symphony work, a commission of SGAE and the Spanish Association of Symphony Orchestras -AEOS for the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra.

Askenar’s work has been extensively acclaimed, with several prizes for composition such as Priaulx Ranier Composition Prize, Alan Bush Composition Prize, Howard Hartog scholarship, Mosco Carner Award, G V Turner-Cooke Composition Award, Pullen Memorial Prize, etc. He has also received different international awards, such as at the International Winter Festival of Brazil, second prize in the Frederic Mompou international composition competition, Injuve Awards, and honorary mention in the Spanish School of Paris composition competition, among others.

Rubens Askenar received an extensive musical education. He graduated with honours from the Higher Conservatoire of Music of the Canaries, undertaking studies with Miguel Ángel Linares. He furthered his composition studies at the conservatoire of Santa Cecilia in Rome, receiving classes from Franceso Carotenuto and master-classes from Salvatore Sciarrino. He subsequently undertook a postgraduate degree at the Higher Conservatoire of Music of Aragon, studying with José María Sánchez Verdú, and a Masters in composition at the Royal Academy of Music, studying with Simon Bainbridge, receiving master classes from Oliver Knussen and Michael Finnissy, graduating with honours and a DipRAM, obtaining the highest grade in the history of the master in composition at the Academy. Subsequently, he completed his doctorate, and he currently serves as a professor of composition and researcher at the Royal Academy of Music in London. The works of Rubens Askenar are published by the English publisher Composers Edition.