Howard Watt was born in Newport, Gwent, in 1955, and graduated in music at University College, Cardiff in 1976. He studied composition with David Wynne, Richard Elfyn Jones and Alun Hoddinott.

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Howard was one of the composers chosen to form the First Young Welsh Composers' Forum in 1981. He has won several awards for composing, including the Stroud International Composers' Competition (1978), and the Sonorities - Northern Ireland's Festival of 20th Century Music - Composers' Competition (1983). His works have been performed in music festivals throughout Britain.

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Most of Howard's output to date is of short pieces for mainly small-scale resources: choral music, vocal and instrumental works. He has a particular interest in composing for 'amateurs' - for those with other-than-virtuosic techniques.