Paul Watkins, BBC Philharmonic & Edward Gardner
Biography Paul Watkins, BBC Philharmonic & Edward Gardner
Paul Watkins
Acclaimed for his inspirational performances and eloquent musicianship, Paul Watkins enjoys a distinguished career as concerto soloist, chamber musician and conductor. He is the Artistic Director of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Detroit (since 2014), the cellist of the Emerson String Quartet (since 2013) and Visiting Professor of Cello at Yale School of Music (since 2018). He took first prize in the 2002 Leeds Conducting Competition, and has held the positions of Music Director of the English Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra.
Watkins gives regular concerto performances with the major British orchestras, including at the BBC Proms, where he has appeared most recently with the BBC Symphony and Thomas Ades in Lutoslawski’s cello concerto, and with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in the world premiere of the cello concerto composed for him by his brother, Huw Watkins. He has performed with prestigious orchestras across the globe including the Netherlands Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony and Queensland Orchestras, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Colorado Symphony, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony, and the Orchestra Nazionale Sinfonica della RAI Torino, under the baton of renowned conductors including Paavo Berglund, Leonard Slatkin, Sakari Oramo, Gianandrea Noseda, Sir Mark Elder, Richard Hickox, Sir Andrew Davis, and Sir Charles Mackerras. He premiered (and was the dedicatee of) Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new concerto with the Antwerp Symphony and Edo de Waart, the Tampere Philharmonic Orchestra and Hannu Lintu, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko, and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Andris Nelsons.
A dedicated chamber musician, Watkins was a member of the Nash Ensemble from 1997 until 2013, when he joined the Emerson String Quartet. With the Quartet he has travelled extensively, performing at major international festivals including Tanglewood, Aspen, Ravinia, Edinburgh, Berlin and Evian and has collaborated with distinguished artists such as Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Renee Fleming, Evgeny Kissin and Barbara Hannigan.
He has conducted all the major British orchestras, and a wide range of international orchestras including the Kristiansand Symphony, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Prague Symphony, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Tampere Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic and the Melbourne Symphony, Queensland and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestras. In 2006 he made his opera debut conducting a critically praised new production of Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine for Opera North.
Highlights of recent seasons include his conducting debuts with the Minnesota Orchestra and Detroit Symphony, as well as concerto appearances with the BBC Symphony under Semyon Bychkov and Sir Andrew Davis, the City of Birmingham Symphony under Alexander Vedernikov, and the European Union Youth Orchestra under the baton of Bernard Haitink, in a tour featuring performances at the Grafenegg Festival and Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. He also made regular appearances with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, and performed Brahms’ Double Concerto on a tour of Sweden and the UK with the Västeras Sinfonietta, Simon Crawford-Philips and Lawrence Power.
His extensive discography as a cellist includes a wide range of repertoire for Chandos Records, including Britten’s Cello Symphony, the concertos of Delius, Elgar, Finzi, Lutoslawski, Walton, Tobias Picker and Cyril Scott, and recitals of Mendelssohn, Martinu, and 20th century British and American music for cello and piano with Huw Watkins. He has recorded the Britten solo cello suites and twentieth century British repertoire for Nimbus, Takemitsu’s Orion and Pleiades for BIS Records, and as a conductor, music by Mozart, Gliere, Röntgen, and a Grammy® nominated pairing of the Berg and Britten violin concertos with Daniel Hope.
Robert Murray
Renowned for his intelligent musicianship and incisive dramatic portrayals of a broad operatic, concert, and recital repertoire, British tenor Robert Murray has firmly established himself as one of the most exciting musicians of his generation. This season, Murray performed as Mark The Midsummer Marriage in concert with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Edward Gardner. He makes his role and house debut as Florestan Fidelio with the Irish National Opera and performs Schoolmaster/Mosquito/Pasek The Cunning Little Vixen with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Haydn Creation with the Handel & Haydn Society, gives recitals at the Wigmore Hall, Lammermuir Festival and Oxford Lieder, and returns to Garsington Opera in the summer of 2022 as Quint and Prologue The Turn of the Screw. Further ahead, Murray will make his house and role debuts as Antonio The Tempest at Teatro alla Scala.
Recent highlights include Quint and Prologue Turn of the Screw with Opera Glassworks under the baton of John Wilson, St John Passion at the Théatre du Châtelet, the staged world premiere of Gerald Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Under Ground at the Royal Opera House, Count Ory Le Comte Ory with Garsington Opera and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle.
Murray has performed principal roles with the Royal Opera House, Hamburg State Opera, the Salzburg Festival, English and Welsh National Operas, Norwegian Opera, Bergen National Opera, Garsington Opera, the Beijing Music Festival, the Venice Biennale, and the Edinburgh International Festival among many others. He collaborates regularly with such conductors as Edward Gardner, Sir Mark Elder, Harry Christophers, Sir Simon Rattle and Paul McCreesh both in opera and concert.
In the concert hall, Murray has performed internationally with many of the world’s leading orchestras and ensembles, including the London Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Spira Mirabilis, Barokksolistene, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Philharmonia, Aurora Orchestra, The Handel & Haydn Society of Boston, the Boston Symphony and the Seattle Symphony Orchestra.
In recital, Murray performs with Andrew West, James Baillieu, Graham Johnson, Joseph Middleton, Malcolm Martineau at venues including The Aldeburgh Festival, Brighton Festival, Wigmore Hall, Dartington Hall and The Oxford Lieder Festival. Murray has recorded opera, song, and oratorio extensively for multiple labels. These recordings include Bach St John Passion with David Temple (Chandos) Berlioz Grand Messe des Morts, Mendelssohn Elijah with Paul Mccreesh (Winged Lion), extracts from Britten Gloriana and Szymanowski Harnasie with Edward Gardner (Chandos), Berg Der Wein with Mario Venzago and Gothenberg Symphony Orchestra (Chandos), Handel Saul with Harry Christophers and The Sixteen (Coro), Offenbach Fantasio with Mark Elder (Opera Rara), Schumann/Rückert Songs with Sholto Kynoch (Stone Records), Malcolm Martineau's Complete songs of Poulenc (Signum), and Schubert Die Schöne Müllerin with Andrew West (Stone Records).
Murray is a committed exponent of contemporary music and has performed the music of Gerald Barry, Hans Werne Henze, Harrison Birtwistle, Colin Matthews, Cecilia McDowell, George Benjamin, Elliott Carter, and Emily Hall, in recital, concert, and staged premieres.
Murray studied Music and History at the University of Newcastle, and went on to study voice at the Royal College of Music, before joining first the National Opera Studio, and finally the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
