The English conductor, organist, harpsichordist, pianist, Ian Watson, had won many prizes for organ playing at the Royal Academy of Music in London, before he completed his studies with Flor Peeters in Belgium.

Ian Watson then held a number of prestigious posts in London, including ten years as Organist of St Margaret s, Westminster (the Parish Church of the House of Commons) to which he was appointed at the age of 19, and, for five years, as Director of Music at St James s, Piccadilly, where Leopold Stokowski was once organist.

Ian Watson has played with most of the leading British orchestras, including the London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony, BBC Welsh, BBC Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, The Academy of Ancient Music, English Baroque Soloists and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. He has made many recordings and toured world-wide with the Academy, most recently to Germany with the American violinist Pamela Frank playing all six Brandenburg Concerti. He has now made three recordings of Brandenburg Concerti, most notably with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe for Deutsche Grammophon.