Huw Watkins, composer

Huw Watkins (born Pontypool, Wales, July 13, 1976)

Quartet no. 2 (composed 2021-2022)

Born in Pontypool, in southeastern Wales, Huw Watkins studied piano at Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester under Peter Lawson (born 1950) from 1992 to 1994. Moving on to King’s College, Cambridge in 1994, Watkins took on composing under the instruction of Robin Holloway (born 1943) and Alexander Goehr (born 1932). In 1997, Watkins continued the study of composition at London’s Royal College of Music under Julian Anderson (born 1967), who encouraged him to write in his own style rather than to follow the fashionable models of the time.

While studying at the Royal College of Music in 2001, Watkins was a recipient of the Constant and Kit Lambert Junior Fellowship, which helps students with living expenses and educational fees. In 2011, Watkins’ “Five Larkin Songs” won a British Composer Award in the vocal category. He won the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center’s Elise L. Stoeger Prize in 2016. In 2021, Watkins was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire for his service to music.

Watkins’ “Quartet no. 2” received its world premiere by the Calidore String Quartet on May 16, 2022, in London’s Wigmore Hall, which co-commissioned the work with Chamber Music Columbus. The three-movement work opens with its initial “Allegro molto,” in which the first violin trips along freely. The “Andante lento” slows things down at first but gradually gains momentum. The finale, a second “Allegro molto,” resumes the spirit of the opening movement. This performance is the United States premiere of “Quartet no. 2.”

Composer Huw Watkins was co-commissioned by Wigmore Hall and Chamber Music ColumbuswithsponsorshipprovidedbyCharlesandBetsyWarnerforacompositionto beperformedbytheCalidoreStringQuartet.