Robert Lee Watt
Robert Lee Watt | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 15, 1948 Neptune Township, New Jersey |
| Genres | Classical |
| Instrument(s) | French horn |
Robert Lee Watt(born January 15, 1948) is an Americanhornplayer and the first African-American French hornist hired by a major symphony orchestra in the United States.[1][2]
Born inNeptune Township, New Jersey,his father was a jazz trumpet player who did not approve of his choice of instrument—feeling Watt's background and race would make a career with the horn impossible.[3]Nevertheless, Watt won a scholarship to theNew England Conservatory of Musicin Boston and continued studies atCalifornia Institute of the Arts.
In 1970 at the age of twenty-two he was hired byZubin Mehtaand theLos Angeles Philharmonicto play assistant principal horn where he remained for 37 years before retiring in 2008.[1]
References
[edit]- ^ab"It's his horn of plenty".Los Angeles Times.20 January 2008.Retrieved31 July2015.
- ^"'The Black Horn': Blowing Past Classical Music's Color Barriers ".National Public Radio.9 November 2014.Retrieved31 July2015.
- ^"Robert Lee Watt Defies Racial Barriers in Classical Music with Instrument for 'Thin-Lipped White Boys'".Atlanta Blackstar. 11 November 2014.Retrieved31 July2015.
External links
[edit]| International | |
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| National | |
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- American classical horn players
- Living people
- American jazz horn players
- California Institute of the Arts alumni
- Boston Conservatory at Berklee alumni
- 20th-century classical musicians
- 20th-century American musicians
- 21st-century classical musicians
- 21st-century American musicians
- 1948 births
- People from Neptune Township, New Jersey
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- American classical musician stubs
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