Composer and pianist Huw Watkins is in demand with ensembles including the BBC orchestras, Britten Sinfonia and the London Sinfonietta. Strongly committed to the performance of new music, he has given the first performances of many works, including piano concertos by Tansy Davies, John Woolrich and Michael Zev Gordon. Huw Watkins has established strong partnerships with Mark Padmore, Ruby Hughes, Ben Goldsheider, Carolyn Sampson, Tamsin Waley-Cohen, the cellist Paul Watkins (his brother) and the Emerson String Quartet. In the UK he has appeared at the Wigmore Hall, as well as in Aldeburgh, Hay and Petworth Festivals, the Sage in Newcastle and in Cambridge. Internationally he has performed in Canada, Germany (including at the Heimbach Festival), Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands and in the USA (including at the Lincoln Center).
Huw Watkins teaches at the Royal Academy of Music. He has been composer-in-association with BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and composer-in-residence at the Two Moors Festival and at Wigmore Hall. He was awarded the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Elise L. Stoeger Prize in 2016 and an MBE for services to music in 2021.
