Word: watt
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Nevertheless, Watt rebelled against the idea of a professional career in music. Although she admits that she was at one time good enough on the violin to have become a free-lancer or orchestra player, the thought of entering the "rat-race" of professional music seemed to her to run contrary to the whole spirit of music-making...
What, then, gave her the confidence to enter, even in amateur status, the field of conducting--a field dominated almost exclusively by men? Perhaps her mother, an interior designer who entered college when her daughter entered high school, and to whom Watt refers as "an ardent feminist," had something to do with...
However, although she too considers herself "very much a feminist," Watt stresses "the main thing is that I do a good job of it, not just that I'm a woman...
...Watt hopes, however, that her experience as an instrumentalist will help close the gap between orchestra and conductor. "It is very important for a conductor to be familiar with the musicians, and to understand what it feels like to be conducted. Only then is it possible to feel like one cohesive group, instead of like an outside dictator," she says, adding. "I hope that, knowing what I myself like in a conductor, I will be able to convey my ideas in a forceful and articulate manner that will be well received...
...members have no doubt that she will fulfill these hopes. Praising her musicianship, Brian J. Hall '81, principal bassoonist of the orchestra, notes that Watt "works beatifully with people, and knows the literature very well." Ross agrees, adding she is "very expressive; in her audition she really pulled things apart and put them back together. We can rely on her being a strong leader who is pleasant yet demanding...