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, Sarah Watkins and Madeleine Pierard. Works have been performed in Australia, South Korea, Japan, Indonesia, USA, Finland, Austria, Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Germany, Luxembourg and, of course, New Zealand.

Chris's sing songs self won the 2015 SOUNZ Contemporary Award at the APRA Silver Scrolls. 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.

Chris manages the Resound project at SOUNZ - Centre for New Zealand Music, where his primary role is to film and edit performances of music by New Zealand composers. He has served two three year terms on the Committee of the Composers Association of New Zealand.

Chris lives in Wellington with his partner and their two young boys.

See also Chris's page at SOUNZ.