One of Britain’s foremost cellists, Paul Watkins performs regularly with the major British orchestras and has made six appearances as concerto soloist at the BBC Proms, most recently in a televised performance of Elgar’s Cello Concerto at the 2009 First Night of the Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Jirí Belohlávek. Abroad, he has performed with the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra under Yakov Kreizberg at the Concertgebouw, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra and Queensland Orchestra, the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, Turin and Aarhus Symphony Orchestra. He has toured Italy and Prague with the BBC Philharmonic and China and the Far East with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. A dedicated chamber musician, he has been a member of the Nash Ensemble since 1997. His discography includes, for Chandos, the Cello Concertos of Tobias Picker and Cyril Scott and Reflections on a Scottish Folk Song by Sir Richard Rodney Bennett. Following his debut at the 2002 Leeds Conductors’ Competition, at which the jury unanimously awarded him first prize, Paul Watkins has also become a successful conductor. In 2009 he took up appointments as Music Director of the English Chamber Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the Ulster Orchestra.