Rob Thorpe is a muscian and author living in Manchester, United Kingdom. Rob is equally at home in pop, funk bands and musical-theatre orchestras, though his main love and area of expertise is progressive rock and metal.

As well as teaching, and writing Rob has composed music for several short film sountracks, live performance soundtrack concerts and his own creative projects. His current project, Polar Institute, is a six piece chamber ensemble that performs music in a roughly post-rock, minimalistic, folk style. Rob has also won awards and participated in residencies and collaborations for contemporary music and multimedia performances.