These concerts are the North Carolina Symphony debut for Paul Watkins.

Paul Paul Watkins is the Artistic Director of the Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival in Detroit (since 2014) and Visiting Professor of Cello at Yale School of Music (since 2018). He took first prize in the 2002 Leeds Conducting Competition and has held the positions of Music Director of the English Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra. 

As a cellist, Watkins has given regular concerto performances with orchestras across the globe, including at the BBC Proms, where he most recently performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Lutoslawski’s cello concerto, and with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales in the world premiere of the cello concerto composed for him by his brother, Huw Watkins. His extensive discography includes Britten’s Cello Symphony; the concertos of Delius, Elgar, Finzi, Lutoslawski, Walton, Scott , and Tobias Picker; and recitals of Mendelssohn, Martinů, and 20th-century British and American music for cello and piano with Huw Watkins. 

Also a dedicated chamber musician, Watkins was a member of the Nash Ensemble (1997-2013) and the Emerson String Quartet (2013-2023). After 47 years, the Emerson Quartet decided to retire and undertook an extensive series of farewell tours, culminating in their final performances in New York’s Lincoln Center in October 2023. The concert was filmed for a documentary by filmmaker Tristan Cook, and their final recording, Infinite Voyage, includes works by Berg, Chausson, Schoenberg, and Hindemith and features as guests soprano Barbara Hannigan and pianist Bertrand Chamayou. 

As a conductor, Watkins has conducted all the major British orchestras and a wide range of international orchestras, including recent debuts in America with the Minnesota Orchestra and Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Recordings as a conductor have included music by Mozart, Glière, Röntgen, and a Grammy-nominated pairing of the Berg and Britten violin concertos with Daniel Hope. 

Watkins plays on a cello made by Domenico Montagnana and Matteo Goffriller in Venice, c.1730.