Dr. Scott WATKINS
Composing
The F u t u re :
Jacksonville's Watkins-Hanson Journey
BY SHERI WEBBER '93
Dr. Scott Watkins, Professor of Piano
and coordinator of keyboard studies at
Jacksonville University (JU) since 2001,
researches the early life of famed American
composer Howard Hanson in his spare
time, focusing on the years that preceded
Hanson’s directorship at the Eastman School
of Music (Eastman) in Rochester, New York.
Watkins hopes this fresh and comprehensive
look at the young, newly-motivated, and
prolific musician, before he became a
Pulitzer Prize winner, will inspire many.
FEATURES
He spent a portion of his summer in Wahoo,
Nebraska, childhood home of Hanson, a
research journey which began with what
Watkins calls an “Indiana Jones moment.”
In December of last year, Watkins shared
with WAVE Magazine exactly how he
unearthed the never-before published
Symphonic Rhapsody, Op. 14, for Solo Piano
which premiered in October 1919.
“During my research, I learned that a famous
Australian pianist and composer, Percy
Grainger, had given a concert at the College
of the Pacific where Hanson was teaching
in 1920, and I had hopes of finding something
from that concert. When I discovered a large,
folded cardboard poster advertising the
concert, I was thrilled and wondered why it
was folded and tied with string. The Eastman
archivist with me, David Peter Coppen, untied
the string and nine pages of an unpublished
manuscript—thought to have been lost—
literally fell onto the table.”