Biography

Dan Watson is a freelance musician living and working in Birmingham.

Raised in the picturesque setting of Snowdonia, North Wales, Dan studied saxophone and clarinet from the age of 14 with Richard Edwards. Having begun learning the saxophone at school, Dan quickly progressed and undertook much ensemble playing at local and national level, including with the North Wales Clarinet Choir and the National Saxophone Choir. He is currently studying saxophone at BCU Birmingham Conservatoire under the expert tuition of Andrew Tweed, and is participating in an Erasmus exchange scheme with the National University of Music in Bucharest, Romania, where he will be residing until late December.

As an ensemble musician, Dan has taken part in ensembles of various sizes, from saxophone quartet performances and masterclasses to big band concerts and works scored for over 100 saxophones (Salvatore Sciarrino, The mouth, the feet, the sound, The International Convention Centre, Birmingham, January 2006). Dan particularly enjoys the wind band genre and has partaken in numerous concerts, including with the Birmingham Conservatoire Wind Orchestra (conducted by Guy Woolfenden), and more recently with Birmingham Symphonic Winds (conducted by Keith Allen) in a performance of Luciano Berio's Accordo in Cologne, Germany.

Aside from performance, Dan has served on the BASBWE (British Association of Symphonic Bands and Wind Ensembles) Executive Committee, and currently operates as Secretary for the Clarinet and Saxophone Society of Great Britain. Dan also frequently contributes to both Winds and the CASS Magazine, and is a member of both publications' editorial boards.

Dan is experienced in the field of teaching saxophone and clarinet to secondary school students and adults, and in Birmingham he is in the process of building a teaching portfolio. He has also prepared small ensembles (clarinet quartets, flute sextets etc) for competition and performance. Having taken up conducting in the last year, Dan has prepared the Birmingham Conservatoire Saxophone Choir for a selection of concerts, and he is enthusiastic about building on this experience gained.

On completion of his degree, Dan hopes to continue to extend his musical activities.