Huw Watkins

Last updated

Huw Watkins
Born (1976-07-13) 13 July 1976 (age 48)
Education
Occupations
  • Classical pianist
  • Composer
  • Academic teacher
Organizations Royal College of Music

Huw Thomas Watkins MBE (born 13 July 1976 [1] ) is a British composer and pianist. Born in South Wales, he studied piano and composition at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, where he received piano lessons from Peter Lawson. He then went on to read music at King's College, Cambridge, where he studied composition with Robin Holloway and Alexander Goehr, and completed an MMus in composition at the Royal College of Music, where he studied with Julian Anderson. Huw Watkins was awarded the Constant and Kit Lambert Junior Fellowship at the Royal College of Music, where he used to teach composition. [2] He is currently Honorary Research Fellow at the Royal College of Music. [3]

Contents

Career

In 1999, the Nash Ensemble premiered Watkins' Sonata for Cello and Eight Instruments, which had been commissioned by Faber Music. The review in The Times declared that "at 22, Huw Watkins is already a composer to be reckoned with". The work has since been performed by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group in London, Paris, Copenhagen and Aldeburgh under the direction of Sakari Oramo and Peter Rundel.

In 2000, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales gave the first performance of Watkins' Sinfonietta under Grant Llewellyn, and as a result of the collaboration, a piano concerto was commissioned for the same orchestra. This was given its premiere – with Watkins at the piano – in May 2002, under Martyn Brabbins.

His works include a Nocturne for solo horn and chamber orchestra – first performed and recorded in March 2002 by David Jolley and the Cincinnati Chamber Orchestra under Mischa Santora; a Cello Sonata, recorded with his brother Paul Watkins for Nimbus Records on a CD of 20th-Century British cello music; String Quartet No. 3, written for the Belcea Quartet and premiered at London's Wigmore Hall in 2004.

More recent works include a London Concerto, commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra to mark their centenary in 2005; Rondo for Birmingham Contemporary Music Group; a Nash Ensemble commission celebrating their 40th Anniversary, and a Double Concerto for viola, cello and orchestra premiered at the 2005 BBC Proms. His composition Dream has been released on the Britten Sinfonia own label, on an album entitled Songs of the Sky. 2014 saw the premiere of "On The Other Hand – Concerto for Brass Band and 2 Jazz Trumpets", commissioned by Ty Cerdd for the National Youth Brass band of Wales.

Chamber music has always been central to Watkins' output: in 2001 his String Quartet No. 2 was premiered at the Cheltenham Festival by the Petersen Quartet, and the Brahms Ensemble Hamburg gave the first performance of his Variations on a Schubert Song at the Gstaad Festival. He recorded his Cello Sonata with Paul Watkins for Nimbus Records and premiered Fantasy for viola and piano with Lawrence Power in 2006. His String Quartet No. 3 was written for the Belcea Quartet, who gave its premiere at the Wigmore Hall in February 2004. Also at the same Hall, the Nash Ensemble premiered their commission Gig in 2005, and Alina Ibragimova gave the world premiere of Partita for solo violin. This was broadcast as part of BBC Radio 3's 2006 lunchtime concert series. He has performed and recorded at the Spannungen chamber music festival in Heimbach.

Song settings are another area of compositional interest. Watkins' setting for tenor and string quartet of Dylan Thomas' In My Craft or Sullen Art was premiered by Mark Padmore and the Petersen Quartet at the Wigmore Hall in May 2007. Watkins' Three Auden Songs (2009) were commissioned by Mark Padmore. The Five Larkin Songs (2010), which were premiered by Carolyn Sampson, won the Vocal category of the 2011 British Composer Awards. [4]

As a pianist, Huw Watkins is regularly heard on BBC Radio three, both as a soloist and with artists such as Alina Ibragimova, Daniel Hope, Nicholas Daniel and Alexandra Wood. He has given premieres of works by Alexander Goehr, Peter Maxwell Davies and Mark-Anthony Turnage. He has performed concertos with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra of the Swan as well as being the Britten Sinfonia's pianist. He has recorded Thomas Adès' song cycle The Lover in Winter with the countertenor Robin Blaze for EMI Classics, and his recording of contemporary British music for violin and piano with Alexandra Wood was released on Usk in 2005. His most recent recording was of the piano cycle Symmetry Disorders Reach by Alexander Goehr, for Wergo.

Watkins' Violin Concerto was premiered at The Proms on 17 August 2010, performed by Alina Ibragimova, for whom it was written. [5] [6]

Watkins was appointed Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2021 Birthday Honours for services to music. [7]

Selected works

Source: [8]

Orchestral and Large ensemble works

Chamber, Small ensemble and solo works

Related Research Articles

John Harris Harbison is an American composer and academic.

Richard Danielpour is an American composer and academic, currently affiliated with the Curtis Institute of Music and the University of California, Los Angeles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Matthews (composer)</span> English composer

David Matthews is an English composer of mainly orchestral, chamber, vocal and piano works.

Arnold Atkinson Cooke was a British composer, a pupil of Paul Hindemith. He wrote a considerable amount of chamber music, including five string quartets and many instrumental sonatas, much of which is only now becoming accessible through modern recordings. Cooke also composed two operas, six symphonies and several concertos.

Philip Cashian is an English composer. He is the head of composition at the Royal Academy of Music.

Anthony Gilbert was a British composer and academic, long associated with the Royal Northern College of Music. He also taught for extended periods as head of composition at the New South Wales State Conservatorium. His works, many of them for larger chamber ensembles, were published by Schott and University of York Music Press. Several of them were written for particular musicians, who performed and recorded them. He wrote a memoir, published in 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Augusta Read Thomas</span> American composer (born 1964)

Augusta Read Thomas is an American composer and University Professor of Composition in the Department of Music at the University of Chicago, where she is also director of the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Holt</span> English composer

Simon Holt is an English composer.

Hugh Wood was a British composer.

Matthew John Hindson AM is an Australian composer.

Margaret Brouwer is an American composer and composition teacher. She founded the Blue Streak Ensemble chamber music group.

Roberto Sierra is a Puerto Rican composer of contemporary classical music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Matthew King (composer)</span> British composer, pianist and educator

Matthew King is a British composer, pianist, and educator. His works include opera, piano and chamber music, and choral and orchestral pieces. He has been described by Judith Weir, Master of the Queen’s Music, as “one of Britain's most adventurous composers, utterly skilled, imaginative, and resourceful."

David Horne is a Scottish composer, pianist, and teacher.

Gary Alan Kulesha is a Canadian composer, pianist, conductor, and educator. Since 1995, he has been Composer Advisor to the Toronto Symphony Orchestra. He has been Composer-in-Residence with the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony (1988–1992) and the Canadian Opera Company (1993–1995). He was awarded the National Arts Centre Orchestra Composer Award in 2002.

Matthew Taylor is an English composer and conductor.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Graham Waterhouse</span> English composer (born 1962)

Graham Waterhouse is an English composer and cellist who specializes in chamber music. He has composed a cello concerto, Three Pieces for Solo Cello and Variations for Cello Solo for his own instrument, and string quartets and compositions that juxtapose a quartet with a solo instrument, including Piccolo Quintet, Bassoon Quintet and the piano quintet Rhapsodie Macabre. He has set poetry for speaking voice and cello, such as Der Handschuh, and has written song cycles. His compositions reflect the individual capacity and character of players and instruments, from the piccolo to the contrabassoon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eduard Hayrapetyan</span> Armenian composer

Eduard Hayrapetyan is an Armenian composer of contemporary classical music and educator.

Freda Swain was a British composer, pianist and music educator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sebastian Fagerlund</span> Finnish composer

Sebastian Fagerlund is a Finnish composer. He is described as “a post-modern impressionist whose sound landscapes can be heard as ecstatic nature images which, however, are always inner images, landscapes of the mind”. Echoes of Western culture, Asian musical traditions, and heavy metal have all been detected in his music.

References

  1. "Huw Watkins | Biography, Albums, Streaming Links". AllMusic . Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  2. "Watkins, Huw | NMC Recordings". Nmcrec.co.uk. Retrieved 7 August 2020.
  3. "Huw Watkins" [ permanent dead link ] at Royal Academy of Music.
  4. Smith, Charlotte (1 December 2011). "British Composer Awards winners announced". Gramophone . Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  5. "Violin Concerto". Schott Music . Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  6. "BBC 2010 Proms Composer Portrait 02". BBC. 17 August 2010. Retrieved 17 July 2022.
  7. "Birthday Honours List – United Kingdom". The London Gazette (Supplement). No. 63377. 12 June 2021. p. B24. Huw Thomas Watkins, Composer and Pianist. For services to music.
  8. "Huw Watkins". Schott Music . 13 July 1976. Retrieved 14 August 2024.