CHRISTOPHER WATSON
Tenor
Christopher Watson has been based in Melbourne since January 2017, and has enjoyed a varied career as a soloist, consort singer and conductor. He was a regular member of the Tallis Scholars for over 10 years and made 550 appearances with them in churches, concert halls and art galleries all over the world. In 2007 he made his debut at Carnegie Hall with Paul Hillier’s Theatre of Voices, giving the world première of David Lang’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Little Match Girl Passion, their recording of which won a Grammy Award in 2009. He returned to Carnegie Hall with Theatre of Voices in February 2015 to perform Stockhausen’s Stimmung. Christopher also sang regularly with Polyphony, Tenebrae, Gallicantus, Alamire, the Gabrieli Consort and Collegium Vocale Gent and you can hear him on over 100 recordings of repertoire by, among others, Dufay, Josquin, Tallis, Byrd, Lassus, Howells, Palestrina, Bach, Berio and Pärt.
Christopher also has an active solo career, particularly in the Passions of JS Bach, which he has performed in many of the cathedrals of the UK, including Canterbury and Christ Church Oxford, the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City and in the Philharmonie in Berlin. He made his solo debut with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in 2023 and this year will perform the St Matthew Passion Evangelist with Melbourne Baroque and Messiah with Melbourne Chamber Orchestra.
Since 2017 he has been Director of Music at Trinity College, Melbourne. At Trinity he enjoys working with one of the finest student choirs in Australia, and alongside the choir’s regular services of Evensong has made four recordings, organised three international tours, as well as a series of concerts in Melbourne, Brisbane and Sydney.
(Photo © John Lloyd Fillingham).
