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]

Robert Lee Watt
Born (1948-01-15) January 15, 1948
Neptune Township, New Jersey
GenresClassical
InstrumentsFrench horn
Associated actsLos Angeles Philharmonic

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
  1. "It's his horn of plenty". Los Angeles Times. 20 January 2008. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  2. "'The Black Horn': Blowing Past Classical Music's Color Barriers". National Public Radio. 9 November 2014. Retrieved 31 July 2015.
  3. "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.


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