bio

Chris Watson (PhD - Victoria, 2007) is a New Zealand composer. His music has enjoyed premieres by orchestras such as the Tokyo Philharmonic, the New Zealand Symphony and the West Australian, ensembles such as Stroma and 175 East and soloists including Arnold Marinissen, Marco Roosink, Yuji Takahashi, Rieko Suzuki, Andrew Uren, Lars Mlekusch and Madeleine Pierard. Works have been performed in Australia, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, USA, Finland, Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and, of course, New Zealand.

He was Mozart Fellow at the University of Otago in 2008 and 2009 and was the winner of the 2002 Asian Composers' League Young Composers Competition. In 2004 he was the recipient of the Composers' Association of New Zealand Trust Fund Award and in 2006 won the Panel Prize in the Douglas Lilburn Prize.

Chris graduated in 2007 with a PhD in composition from Victoria University of Wellington under the supervision of Ross Harris and Dugal McKinnon. A thesis and a body of new works investigated the effects of music notation software on compositional practices and outcomes.

He is currently serving as Secretary for the Composers Association of New Zealand.

See also Chris's page at SOUNZ.