Roseminna Watson began her relationship with the violin at the age of three. Her mother, Clyde Watson, taught her for the following six years until she went on to study at the New England Conservatory’s Preparatory School. Ms. Watson holds a B.A. in Graphic Design from Yale University, a Masters in Violin Performance from Stony Brook University, and an Artist’s Diploma in Chamber Music from San Francisco Conservatory of Music. She is the former first violinist of the Aiana String Quartet — winners of the 2011 String Prize at the Coleman International Chamber Music Competition — and the recipient of numerous awards and much acclaim through collaborations with renowned artists including Menahem Pressler, Donald Weilerstein, Jean-Michel Fonteneau, Axel Strauss, Paul Hersh, David Tanenbaum, Jennifer Culp, and Jodi Levitz.
Although Ms. Watson is best known as a classical violinist, she continues a life-long exploration of multiple expressive mediums, and in recent years has begun to emerge as a singer, composer and multimedia artist as well. All of her expressive creations are imbued with a haunting immediacy and poignant nostalgia and she is fascinated by the human body as a vehicle that can carry us closer to the divine. Ms. Watson is a member of Providence - based new music collective Verdant Vibes, and a founding member of Humming Owl — a duo with her singer/songwriter/sitarist husband, Pablo Escalante.
In 2020, Ms. Watson founded the Pandemic Polyphony project — an ever-expanding platform for collaborative connection between creators of all kinds across the boundaries of physical distance and isolation. All work created through the project can be found in the gallery at pandemicpolyphony.org. Ms. Watson is currently looking forward to world premieres of two recently-commissioned works — Crucible / Beloved for violin and voice, and Triptych, A Priori : Logic of the Interior for violin, clarinet, piano and tape. You can find her solo album, Limbic Hymnal (2017), as well as Ravel Duo Sonata for Violin and Cello (2022) at roseminnawatson.com.
This is Roseminna's first collaboration with the Newport String Project