Paul Watkins
Paul Watkins is one of Britain's foremost cellists. Born in 1970, he studied cello with William Pleeth, Melissa Phelps and Johannes Goritzki and first came to public attention as winner of the string section of the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 1988. Alongside his playing, Paul is also a keen conductor and in 2002 won both first prize and audience prize at the Leeds Conductors' Competition.
As a cellist Paul performs regularly with most of the major British orchestras including the Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony and BBC Philharmonic Orchestras. He has made five concerto appearances at the Proms performing works by Elgar, Sullivan, Lutoslawski, Tobias Picker and most recently William Schuman's A Song of Orpheus. He has worked with, amongst others, Leonard Slatkin, Sir Andrew Davis, David Robertson, Mark Elder, Alexander Lazarev, James Judd, Richard Hickox, Gianandrea Noseda and Sir Charles Mackerras.
Last season he made his concerto debut at the Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of chief conductor Yakov Kreizberg. He performed in Australia with the Melbourne Symphony and Queensland Orchestras and toured to Italy and Prague with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra. Elsewhere he has performed with the Sonderjyllands Symfoniorkester and Aarhus Symfoniorkester in Denmark and toured China and the Far East with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
Alongside his concerto appearances, Paul is a dedicated chamber musician and has been a member of the Nash Ensemble since 1997 with whom he tours regularly to Germany and America. Following his highly acclaimed New York debut recital in 1995 he has performed in Boston, New York and will return to New York this season for concerts with chamber music partners Daniel Hope and Jamie Laredo. He has performed chamber music recitals at the Concertgebouw with Vadim Repin and Alexander Kerr, in Hamburg with Daniel Hope and in Aldeburgh with Isabelle van Keulen. He has given solo and duo recitals at the Wigmore Hall, City of London Festival, South Bank Centre, Bridgewater Hall Manchester and Queens Hall, Edinburgh.
As a conductor he has worked with the Philharmonia, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, BBC Scottish Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, City of Birmingham Symphony, Britten Sinfonia and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Outside the UK he has conducted the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Padova Chamber Orchestra, Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam, Kristiansand Symphony Orchestra in Norway, Umeå Symphony Orchestra in Sweden and the Aalborg Symphony in Demark.
Paul is dividing the 2005/6 season between performing as a cellist and conducting. In March he will premiere a new concerto by Richard Rodney Bennett with the Philharmonia at South Bank Centre and in May will record it for Chandos. Elsewhere he performs with the City of Birmingham Symphony under Sakari Oramo and will give recitals at the Concertgebouw, Wigmore Hall and around France. In addition he will conduct the London Philharmonic Orchestra, BBC Symphony, BBC Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Symphony and Helsingborg Symphony Orchestras.
Paul has released five cello recordings: On Nimbus he recorded the complete Britten solo Cello Suites, a recital programme of Twentieth Century British repertoire and a CD of music written in Theresienstadt with violinist Daniel Hope and violist Philip Dukes. He has made two concerto discs, the Tobias Picker Cello Concerto for Chandos, and Takemitsu Orion and Pleiades.
Paul plays on a cello made by Jean-Baptiste Vuillaume in Paris in 1846.
