Colin Ross Waterson is a composer, lyricist, music producer & educator from Glasgow. He trained at RSAMD (now Royal Conservatoire of Scotland) on the junior programme and London Studio Centre studying Musical Theatre. He was a member of Royal Scottish National Orchestra (youth ensemble), performed in three seasons with Scottish Youth Theatre, and made his professional debut—aged thirteen—in Scottish Opera's production of Death in Venice (Theatre Royal, Glasgow).
He is the co-creator, composer, lyricist, and orchestrator of A Second Chance—a new musical. He scored multi-award-winning short films Blood Out of a Stone & Early Mourning, both streaming on Amazon Prime. Colin is the composer, lyricist, and orchestrator for the new musical, One Night Only—funded by Creative Scotland in collaboration with Visible Fictions. He is currently developing three new pieces of musical theatre Two Susans, Quad Squad and Harris & Greta.
Colin is a performing arts / music educator specialising in music theory, performance, music business, contemporary dance, composition, songwriting & lyric writing. He is an Associate with Pearson, writing for and providing quality assurance on their Higher Nationals qualifications for Theatre, Music and Dance. He was a faculty member at Bodywork Company Dance Studios, Institute of Contemporary Music Performance and The British Academy of New Music.
As a performer in the theatre, highlights include: Don’t Panic (or Your Daughter’s Fine, Mrs Worthington) (Perth Theatre); How Man Put the Sun in it's Place (Glasgow Garden Festival / Live BBC Broadcast); Romeo and Juliet (Athenaeum Theatre); Godspell (Edinburgh Festival Theatre); Sweet Charity (Shaw Theatre); Matthew Bourne’s Swan Lake (Sadler’s Wells, Piccadilly Theatre, Neil Simon Theatre, Ahmanson Theatre, 1st UK Tour); Les Troyens (Royal Opera House); La Boheme (The London Coliseum); Matthew Bourne’s Cinderella (Piccadilly Theatre); The Fairy Queen (London Coliseum); The Silver Tassie (London Coliseum); Matthew Bourne’s Highland Fling (UK Tour); Street Scene (London Coliseum); Seraglio (Opera du Rhin, Paris Opera, European Tour); Intoto Dance Company (Founding Member / UK Tour—repertoire including: Richard Alston, Siobhan Davies, Darshan Singh-Bhuller, Ian Spink, Rafael Bonachela, Sally Owen); Bunty Matthais Company (Royal Festival Hall, Site Specific); Royal Variety Performance (Victoria Palace Theatre); Broadway Cares Gala (Schubert Theatre); Gershwin: A Celebration (Lyceum Theatre); Stonewall Show (Royal Albert Hall).
He also recorded as Waterson for many years, making three solo albums—Dada, Basquiat Beats & Paris Still Burns—and a slew of underground classics including Scars with KDA on the [PIAS] label, Strip Down with Smokin' Jo on the Junior Boys Own label and Ego with Ashley Beedle on the Ramrock label. He also had a massive club hit Tell Me with KDA, later remixed by Kenny Dope. During his time recording he collaborated with Black Science Orchestra, Honey Dijon, Victoria Wilson James, Terry Farley, Billie Ray Martin and Severino. Performing as Waterson, Colin appeared at Lovebox, Womad, Defected in the Park, Ministry of Sound, Vega, Space, Creamfields and Pride.