Anthony Watson

Anthony Watson was born in Southland in 1933. After studying music at the University of Otago, he moved to Wellington, where he played viola with the National Orchestra (now the NZSO). His body of work is small, but musically substantial. He was largely independent as a composer, and works such as the Prelude and Allegro for strings, and three string quartets, show an awareness of international modernism in music. He was the first Mozart Fellow at the University of Otago, a position he held from 1960 to 1971.