Roderick Watkins

Roderick Watkins (born 1964) is a composer and Professor of Composition and Contemporary Music at Canterbury Christ Church University, Kent, England.

Watkins was educated at Gresham's School and then took a degree in Philosophy and Composition at Oberlin in the US before studying at the Royal Academy of Music, where he won all of the Academy's main prizes for composition, completed his doctorate and became a Leverhulme Fellow. His teachers included Hans Werner Henze, Richard Hoffmann, and Paul Patterson. He also spent a year at IRCAM in Paris and later returned to IRCAM as a “compositeur en recherche” (research composer).

At Christ Church, he is Programme Director for undergraduate Music and teaches composition and contemporary music. In 2005, he was appointed Professor of Composition and Contemporary Music.

Compositions

Watkins' compositions include a full-length opera, "The Juniper Tree", premiered in London at the Almeida festival 1997 by the London Sinfonietta conducted by Markus Stenz. In 2003 he produced the electronic material for Henze’s opera "L’Upupa".

Orchestral compositions include "Red Light", "Who Walked Between", "Still", and "Light's Horizon".

Electro-acoustic compositions include "The Looking Glass" and "Sound in Space".

Chamber music includes "A Valediction: of Weeping", "Last Light" (for clarinet and piano), and "At the Horizon" (for flute and piano), a "Clarinet Quintet" and "Breath".