RLW
American horn player, author; the first African-American French hornist hired by a major symphony orchestra in the US
Robert Lee Watt
The basics
Quick facts
Intro
American horn player, author; the first African-American French hornist hired by a major symphony orchestra in the US
A.K.A.
Bob Watt, Robert Watt
Gender:
Male
Places:
Work field:
Birth:
15 January 1948(Neptune Township, Monmouth County, New Jersey, USA)
Star sign:
Instruments:
Education:
California Institute of the Arts
Santa Clarita, Los Angeles County, USA
Boston Conservatory at Berklee
Boston, Suffolk County, USA
The details
Biography
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.
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. 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.