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6:00 PM SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2018
PAVILION
“JUST LIKE PARADISE” TOUR
THE NEW RESPECTS
†
–
–
MATT NATHANSON
–
–
O.A.R.
†
Ravinia debut
HUWWATKINS,
piano
Born in Wales in
, Huw Watkins studied pi-
ano with Peter Lawson at Chetham’s School of
Music and composition with Robin Holloway,
Alexander Goehr, and Julian Anderson at Cam-
bridge and the Royal College of Music, where
he was awarded a junior fellowship and later
joined the composition faculty. He is currently
a professor of composition at the Royal Acad-
emy of Music. Watkins has premiered works by
Oliver Knussen, Mark-Anthony Turnage, John
Woolrich, and Michael Zev Gordon, and his
performance credits include concertos with the
BBC Symphony Orchestra and Orchestra of the
Swan. His recordings include chamber music
discs on Chandos, Signum, and Nimbus, Alex-
ander Goehr’s piano cycle
Symmetry Disorders
Reach
on Wergo, and music by Knussen and
himself on NMC. Watkins’s growing body of
orchestral works includes a violin concerto for
Alina Ibragimova, which was premiered by BBC
Symphony Orchestra, and two commissions
from the London Symphony Orchestra:
London
Concerto
and a ute concerto for Adam Walker.
He also has a long-standing relationship with
the BBC National Orchestra, which premiered
his piano concerto (with Watkins as soloist)
and a double concerto, performed by violist
Philip Dukes and cellist Josephine Knight. As
its
– Composer in Association, Watkins
has written several further works, including a
cello concerto for his brother Paul, which was
premiered at the BBC Proms. Most recently,
the Hallé Orchestra commissioned a sympho-
ny from Watkins. Chamber music is central to
Watkins’s output and also recently included a
work for his brother,
Blue Shadows Fall
, com-
missioned by the Chamber Music Society of
Lincoln Center. He has also written a solo violin
partita for Ibragimova and a viola fantasy for
Lawrence Power. His vocal works include
In my
cra or sullen art
for tenor and string quartet;
Five Larkin Songs for soprano and piano, which
won a British Composer Award;
Remember
for
soprano and string orchestra; and two chamber
operas commissioned by Music
eatre Wales,
Crime Fiction
and
In the Locked Room
. Huw
Watkins is making his Ravinia debut.
AUGUST 27 – SEPTEMBER 2, 2018 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE
111