Tony Watson

A respected musician, educator, and conductor, Tony Watson has more than thirty years studio flute teaching experience and is the Suzuki Flute instructor for the University of Louisville’s Community Music Program. His students have earned top honors, winning concerto competitions and seats in youth orchestras, All-State Bands, and university orchestras. He is also Adjunct Instructor of Music at Elizabethtown Community College where he teaches Introduction to Music both in the classroom and Online.
Dr. Watson is also an Orff Schulwerk specialist, having earned certification Levels I-III under the guidance of such luminaries as Charles Tighe, Dr. Deanna Stark, Dr. Maribeth Yoder-White and Darva Campbell while teaching in the Fulton and DeKalb County Schools in metropolitan Atlanta. He has led Orff Schulwerk enrichment classes at the University of Louisville Suzuki Piano Institute and the University of Louisville’s Suzuki String Institute as well as for the Louisville Suzuki String Association’s Fall Workshop at the University of Louisville.
Formerly principal flutist with the Colorado Gilbert and Sullivan Festival and the DeKalb Wind Symphony, he has performed with the Jefferson Symphony (Colorado), Orchestra Atlanta, the Atlanta Ballet Orchestra, the woodwind quintet Montage and with the Pandean Players Wind Chamber Ensemble. In 2000-01, he was featured as flute soloist with the Atlanta Boy Choir on their tours of the Canadian Maritime Provinces and throughout Italy including performances at the Papal Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi, St Mark’s Basilica in Venice and St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
Dr. Watson is a founding advisor of the Atlanta Flute Club. In 1998, he was elected to serve as Vice President, then President of the Atlanta Flute Club. He also served as Exhibits Coordinator for the first two annual Atlanta Flute Fairs and then as Flute Fair Coordinator for two years. He enjoyed Guest Conducting the Middle School Honors Flute Choir and Flute Choir Reading Sessions for the Atlanta Flute Fairs in 2007 and 2009 respectively. As the National Flute Association’s Masterclass Reporter from 2004 to 2008, Dr. Watson helped to bring the Masterclass listing to its electronic form and published the Masterclass listing in Flutist Quarterly for five years. In 2006, he was selected to perform as a finalist in the NFA’s Convention Performers Competition in Pittsburgh. He has presented on various flute-related topics at the National Flute Convention, The Kentucky Flute Society and the Indiana Music Educators Association Conference.
Dr. Watson earned the Bachelor of Music degree in Music Education from Valdosta State University, the Master of Music degree in Flute Performance from the University of Colorado at Boulder, and the Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Flute Performance with a minor in Music Education from the University of Georgia. His dissertation The Flute Pedagogy of Toshio Takahashi surveys the teaching technique of the Suzuki Flute School author. In addition, Dr. Watson completed extensive teacher training at the East Tennessee Suzuki Flute Institute and the Talent Education Institute in Matsumoto, Japan where he studied with Toshio Takahashi. His teachers have included Angeleita Floyd, Geoffrey Gilbert, Karen Yonovitz, Carl Hall, Angela Jones-Reus, William Bennett, Peter Lloyd and Toshio Takahashi.