Edward Watson
Edward (Ted), won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music to study clarinet and composition. There he won the Eve Kische Memorial Prize for woodwind performance. As a professional clarinettist he has performed in the fields of orchestral, chamber and theatre music and has played in many of the world’s major cities.
His orchestral compositions and arrangements have been performed by the Royal Liverpool Orchestra and Choir and the Bournemouth Sinfonietta.
Chamber music compositions and arrangements have been performed by the Nash Ensemble, London Sinfonietta, the Midland Chamber Players and English Serenata who have recorded and broadcast his arrangements and chamber works.
Works for Brass Band include: The Turning Seasons (Black Dyke- Radio 3), and arrangements of Walton’s Henry V and Battle of Britain Suite (Black Dyke), Richard III Suite (William Fairey). The première of his arrangement of Façade was narrated by Lady Walton.
He has written for radio, television and theatre and his CD’s include:
Summer’s End- English Serenata / Ian Partridge / Niamh Cusack / Gabriel Woolf
Dick Whittington- Benjamin Luxon / Belmont Ensemble
Henry V / As You Like It (Walton/Watson) English Serenata
A Muse of Fire- Black Dyke Mills Brass Band (Music Services Industry Award for best CD. in its class 1996)
Who Is He? - Yorkshire Building Society Brass Band / Ian Partridge
Facade - Lady Walton and the Black Dyke Mills Brass Band
A Celtic Springtime - Barkham Harp Quartet
Featured composer for the Stratford upon Avon Festival of English Music.
For many years Edward Watson was a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company and is a tutor of clarinet at Birmingham Conservatoire.
John Meadows
Since graduating from Birmingham Conservatoire in 1993, John has freelanced around the Midlands as a clarinettist, saxophonist, teacher and conductor.
As part of the Maskarade Clarinet Quartet, he has given recitals around the country for festivals and music societies, broadcast live on BBC radio, appeared at the International Convention Centre and the National Portrait Gallery as a guest artist for ‘An Audience with Sir Simon Rattle’, and undertaken tours overseas.
He has played in a variety of productions for the Royal Shakespeare Company, both at Stratford and on tour, including ‘A Comedy of Errors’, ‘Twelfth Night’, and the recent winter production of ‘Romeo and Juliet’.
The world of opera has seen him on tour with the Mid-Wales Opera Company for many years, with Longborough Opera productions of ‘Hansel and Gretel’ and ’Das Rheingold’, and Birmingham Opera productions of ‘Idomeneo’ and ‘Otello’.
As the Musical Director for the Peterbrook Players, John managed a wide variety of projects over ten years, from the cockney classic ‘Half a Sixpence’ to the dazzling spectacle of ‘Copacabana’, and he has conducted a number of Midlands ensembles including the Birmingham Schools’ Wind Orchestra.
Previous freelancing ventures include working with ‘Orchestra da Camara’, the ‘Mozart Orchestra’, ‘Orchestra of the Swan’, the City of London Orchestra, and touring with Barry Manilow.
John teaches for the Birmingham Music Service and King Edward VI Camp Hill School, where he also directs a number of ensembles.
In addition, he is the Honorary Organiser for the ‘Bromsgrove Young Musicians’ Platform‘, an annual competition for musicians under the age of twenty-five.