Tim Watts

Tim Watts combines careers as composer, pianist and teacher, and lives in Ely, Cambridgeshire.  His output includes orchestral, choral and dramatic works, as well as much chamber music and song, often written for his own performing partnerships. Recent works include song cycles for Cerys Jones (White Shadow, five settings of poems by Don Paterson) and for Andrew Kennedy (Six Songs to Orpheus), a dramatic cantata on the subject of St Etheldreda for Ely Cathedral, a piano trio (for the Iridian Trio, in which he performs with Clara Biss and Roberto Sorrentino) and a sonatina for clarinet and piano. He has just completed a chamber opera, Bonnie & Clyde, in collaboration with the playwright, Adam Peck.

From 2005-08 he was composer-in-residence at Bedford School, an experience which sparked a continuing commitment to writing for young musicians with recent commissions from Trinity Guildhall publications and from Uppingham School, where he is Composer-in-Association.

Tim studied composition with Jeffery Wilson at Junior Guildhall and Hugh Wood and Robin Holloway at the University of Cambridge.  In 2001 he gained his Masters in piano accompaniment at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama where his teacher was Norman Beedie; his studies there were supported by an award from The Countess of Munster Musical Trust.

He is an Affiliated Lecturer at the Faculty of Music, University of Cambridge, and Teaching Associate in Music at St John’s College, Cambridge where he is also Sub-Director of Studies; he also teaches at the Royal College of Music.