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TAA Faculty

The Academy core faculty consists of twenty nationally recognized professors, academic instructors, and artists assembled from leading, universities, schools, and arts institutions from throughout the United States. A rigorous curriculum, cutting-edge methodology, and a unique philosophical perspective provide world-class instruction, community, and renewal to arts educators from across Tennessee and the nation.

Alfred
 
Watkins
Upper Middle/Secondary
 
|
 
Music

Alfred Watkins retired as director of bands at Lassiter High School in Marietta, Georgia, where he spent thirty-one of his thirty-seven years in the profession. He is currently musical director and conductor of the Cobb Wind Symphony. He is a graduate of Florida A&M University (FAMU) and received an honorary doctorate from the VanderCook College of Music. Concert bands under Watkins’s leadership have performed at thirty-two invitational concert band events, and he has conducted All-State High School Bands in thirty-four states. His concert bands have performed at the Midwest Clinic, Music for All National Festival, and at the Georgia Music Educators Association conventions. Watkins is a member of the American Bandmasters Association, the FAMU Gallery of Distinguished Alumni, and has been named to the Hall of Fame for the Bands of America, Conn Selmer, and the Minority Band Directors National Association. The $1.5 million band building at Lassiter High School bears his name.

Core Class: 
The Non-Negotiables of Superior Rehearsals
Interlude: 
25 Common Mistakes of the Young Band Director
Tennessee Arts Academy • Tennessee Arts Academy Foundation
801 2nd Avenue North  • Suite 100 • Nashville, Tennessee 37201
615-988-6250 • taa@tnartsacademy.org