Roderick Watkins, composer

Roderick Watkins was born in Norwich, England. After studying composition and philosophy in the U.S. at Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music, he returned to the U.K. to study at the Royal Academy of Music. There he worked with Justin Connolly, Paul Patterson, and Hans Werner Henze, winning all the major composition prizes, and gaining a teaching fellowship in electronic music. After leaving the RAM in 1991, he spent a summer at the Montepulciano Festival in Italy, where he composed a ballet for the local musicians, dancers, and actors, Labarinto, and where his orchestral piece Pietra was performed, conducted by Hans Werner Henze. He spent 1991-1992 at IRCAM under the direction of Pierre Boulez, in Paris, on the Cursus de Composition et Informatique, where he composed The Looking Glass, which has been performed several times in England and in Paris.

Since 1992, Roderick Watkins has been Lecturer of Music at Christ Church College, Canterbury, teaching composition, electronic music, and 20th Century Music. Recently completed pieces include Last Light, for clarinet and piano, and At the Horizon, for flute and piano. Current projects include a chamber opera, The Juniper Tree, for the Munich Biennial in 1997.

May 4, 1996