Born in 1964 in Gouda, Netherlands, Rob Zuidam studied with Philippe Boesmans and Klaas de Vries at the Rotterdam Conservatory, and Lukas Foss and Oliver Knussen at Tanglewood in the United States, where he was awarded the Koussevitzky Composition Prize for his work Fishbone (first movement of the piece Three Mechanisms).

Although his music is frequently performed in the Netherlands, he is primarily active in the United States. Besides writing concert music, he often works in theatre and on pop music.

At the request of Hans Werner Henze, in 1994, he worked at the Music Biennale on a theatrical/musical production for which he composed the score and devised the theatrical elements.