Accolades for Carolyn Watson

Sydney conductor Carolyn Watson’s star continue to rise as she has headed off to Europe for the northern summer. She sent  Sounds Like Sydney a ‘postcard’ from Berlin.

“I’m writing this from Berlin where I’ve just arrived. Very fortunately, I was named as the recipient of Opera Foundation Australia’s 2012 Berlin New Music Opera Award, a national prize for the study of post-1945 opera in Germany. The award is open to anyone affiliated with opera at a national level in Australia – conductors, repetiteurs, directors, designers, choreographers – so it’s quite an honour. The Award has facilitated a residency at the Staatsoper Berlin where I am currently engaged as assistant to the MD for their Infektion! Festival of Modern Music. More information at:

http://staatsoperberlin.wordpress.com/

Prior to arriving in Berlin I was in Russia where I participated in the St Petersburg International Conducting Masterclass where I was fortunate to be named a prizewinner of the course. To conduct the St Petersburg Chamber Philharmonic in concert as part of their 2012 subscription series was indeed a special opportunity.

Finally, this week’s good news is that I have been awarded a Churchill Fellowship to study performance practice and training methods of symphonic and operatic choirs in Europe, the UK and the US”.

Congratulations Carolyn Watson !!

Carolyn Watson is Conductor in Residence at the Conservatorium High School, Sydney.  She has conducted numerous ensembles in Sydney, amongst them, Rockdale Opera, Willoughby Symphony Orchestra and the SBS Radio and Television Youth Orchestra. She’s presently Associate Conductor of the Tasmanian Discovery Orchestra and has been Assistant Chorusmaster of Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, with whom she worked assisting Simone Young, Brett Dean and Alexander Briger in preparing for the Australian World Orchestra concerts in 2011.