Martin Watt

Martin Watt was born in Standerton in the Mpumalanga province of South Africa in 1970. He graduated from the North-West University in Potchefstroom with the degrees Bachelor of Music in 1991 and Bachelor of Music (Honours) in 1992. Thereafter he continued with his studies in composition with Peter Klatzow at the University of Cape Town (UCT), where he obtained the Master of Music degree (cum laude) in 1993.

Numerous national and international scholarships - such as the Priaulx Rainier Prize, SAMRO’s Overseas Scholarship for Composers, an international scholarship from the Foundation for the Creative Arts and a grant from the Ernest Oppenheimer Foundation - assisted him to continue his studies with the renowned British composer Paul Patterson at the Royal Academy of Music in London from 1994 to 1995. Here he received the Diploma of Advanced Studies in Composition and won the prestigious Charles Lucas Prize.

Upon his return to South Africa, he became a part-time lecturer in the Department of Music at the University of Pretoria, lecturing in music theory. Here he also obtained a Doctorate in Music in 1996. From 1998 to 2000, he was a post-doctoral research fellow at the same university, researching in historical musicology. From 2000 to 2003, he was lecturer in the music division of the School of Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, where he taught music theory and analysis, history of music and general music knowledge.

In 2004 he accepted a senior lectureship in the School of Music and Conservatoire at the North-West University in Potchefstroom, where he taught music theory, composition and music technology. In 2004 he was the only South African member of a pan-African panel of experts who selected a new anthem for the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In 2007 he was a guest lecturer at the Utrecht Conservatoire in the Netherlands. Since 2008 he has been a senior lecturer in music theory and composition at the South African College of Music at UCT.