Paul Watkins — Cello
Paul Watkins enjoys a distinguished international career as conductor, cello soloist, and chamber musician. Acclaimed for his inspirational performances and eloquent musicianship, he has served as Artistic Director of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Detroit since 2014, as cellist of the Emerson String Quartet from 2013 until its final season in 2023, and as Visiting Professor of Cello at the Yale School of Music since 2018. Winner of the 2002 Leeds Conducting Competition, he has also held leadership roles as Music Director of the English Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra.
As a soloist, Watkins has appeared with leading ensembles including the BBC Symphony, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Netherlands Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony, Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Colorado Symphony, Antwerp Symphony, and Orchestra Nazionale Sinfonica della RAI Torino. He has worked under conductors such as Paavo Berglund, Leonard Slatkin, Sakari Oramo, Gianandrea Noseda, Sir Mark Elder, and Andris Nelsons. Dedicated to contemporary music, he has premiered concertos written for him by composers including Mark-Anthony Turnage and his brother, Huw Watkins. Recent highlights include Tippett’s Triple Concerto with the Hallé and Shostakovich’s First Concerto with the Aalborg Symphony.
A committed chamber musician, Watkins was a longtime member of the Nash Ensemble (1997–2013) and joined the Emerson String Quartet in 2013, touring extensively and collaborating with artists such as Emanuel Ax, Yefim Bronfman, Renée Fleming, and Evgeny Kissin. With the Quartet, he performed at major festivals worldwide and recorded their final album with Barbara Hannigan and Bertrand Chamayou before their farewell at Lincoln Center in 2023.
As a conductor, Watkins has led the major British orchestras and international ensembles including the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Prague Symphony, Ensemble Orchestral de Paris, Kristiansand Symphony, Melbourne Symphony, and Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony. His opera debut came with a critically acclaimed production of Poulenc’s La voix humaine for Opera North. Recent seasons have included conducting debuts with the Minnesota Orchestra and Detroit Symphony, and concerto performances with the BBC Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, and the European Union Youth Orchestra under Bernard Haitink.
His extensive discography spans Chandos, BIS, Nimbus, and other labels, with recordings ranging from Britten’s Cello Symphony, Elgar, Walton, Finzi, and Lutosławski concertos to Takemitsu’s Orion and Pleiades and twentieth-century British and American works. As a conductor, his recordings include Mozart, Glière, Röntgen, and a Grammy-nominated release of the Berg and Britten violin concertos with Daniel Hope.
Watkins performs on a cello by Domenico Montagnana and Matteo Goffriller (Venice, c.1730).