Robert Lee Watt
Robert Lee Watt (born January 15, 1948) is an American horn player and the first African American French hornist hired by a major symphony orchestra in the United States.[1][2]
Born in Neptune 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 the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston and continued studies at California Institute of the Arts.
In 1970 at the age of twenty-two he was hired by Zubin Mehta and the Los Angeles Philharmonic to play assistant principal horn where he remained for 37 years before retiring in 2008.[1]
References
- ^ a b "It's his horn of plenty". Los Angeles Times. 20 January 2008. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "'The Black Horn': Blowing Past Classical Music's Color Barriers". National Public Radio. 9 November 2014. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ "Robert Lee Watt Defies Racial Barriers in Classical Music with Instrument for 'Thin-Lipped White Boys'". Atlanta Blackstar. 11 November 2014. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
{{cite news}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help)
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- American classical horn players
- Living people
- American jazz horn players
- Musicians from New Jersey
- African-American musicians
- California Institute of the Arts alumni
- Boston Conservatory alumni
- 20th-century classical musicians
- 20th-century American musicians
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- 21st-century American musicians
- 1948 births
- People from Neptune Township, New Jersey
- American classical musician stubs
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