Career
Born in 1918 in Cardiff, Wales, Harold was one of four siblings, all of whom were musical. By the age of 10, Harold was winning piano prizes and performing with, for example, the Scottish Symphony Orchestra. After a stay in the United States, Rubens moved to South Africa in the 1950s and become involved in the Anti-Apartheid Movement.
While teaching at the College of Music in Cape Town, he was the first musician to refuse to play to segregated audiences.
During the African National Congress Treason Trial he played high profile concerts to raise money for African National Congress defendants. And his home in Newlands became a meeting place for other Movement members, including Nelson Mandela and Albie Sachs Rubens returned from South Africa to the United Kingdom in 1963, taking up a position teaching at the Royal Academy of Music, London.
He died in 2010, at his home in London, England.