Christopher Waltham – 1st Prize with Special Mention, Composition
Christopher Waltham was born into a musical family.
He started the piano at 3 years old, and the cello at 7, and during his mid to late adolescence began studying and writing music.
He studied composition with Robert Sherlaw Johnson (a student of Messiaen) at Oxford University.
He then spent many years playing in the Orchestre du Capitole de Toulouse, and coaching chamber music in Toulouse at the Conservatory and at Toulouse’s post-graduate unit (ISDAT).
In 1999, in response to a commission from the Instituto Cervantes, he composed new music to accompany two of Buñuel’s first films: “Un chien andalou” and “L’âge d’or”.
In 2021, during the Covid episodes, he made a “pocket” version of Bizet’s Carmen, for 6 singers and 8 instrumentalists, which was performed several times in England.
He has made many other arrangements for diverse combinations of instruments.
Among the many original pieces that he has written are solos for piano, flute, clarinet, violin, viola and cello, and an array of ensembles from two instruments upwards.