David Watkin

"He not only brings that dedicated scholarly view of playing characterisitc of period instrument specialists, but he plays with such huge commitment. He is a great inspiration to me, especially in Mozart."​ (Sir Charles Mackerras, BBC Music Magazine) David Watkin read Music at Cambridge whilst studying the cello with William Pleeth and singing with Kenneth Bowen. As a solo cellist he has made a wide range of acclaimed recordings, including Bach Suites ("a triumph" Gramophone), performed the Schumann Concerto with Sir John Eliot Gardiner and ORR at Lincoln Center, New York and collaborated with the Tokyo Quartet, Robert Levin and Fredericka von Stade. With the Eroica Quartet he has performed all over Europe and the US and their recordings of Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Debussy and Ravel have received great acclaim. David Watkin brings to conducting decades of music making at the highest level. As Principal Cello in some of the world’s leading ensembles, including English Baroque Soloists, Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique, the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, he has played a key role at the heart of some ground-breaking performances. The breadth of his musical background – academic and practical, ‘early’ and modern, vocal and instrumental, symphonic and chamber – gives him a unique perspective. As well as formal study of conducting he has worked under, and received guidance from some of the leading conductors of the age. He has conducted a wide range of repertoire from Bach and Handel to new commissions with groups including the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Swedish Baroque Orchestra, the Academy of Ancient Music, the Manchester Consort and the Meadows Chamber Orchestra. He has conducted the EUYO Campus orchestra at Grafenegg and ensembles at the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal Welsh College, the Guildhall School of Music and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland.