Internationally Renowned Pianist to Give Recital at Converse

Internationally renowned and award-winning pianist Scott Watkins will present a guest artist recital Sunday, Sept. 25 at 4 p.m. in Daniel Recital Hall on the campus of Converse College. The recital is free and open to the public. For more information, call (864) 596-9021.

Since his first concert tour of South America in 1986, which included over 40 engagements in eight weeks, Scott Watkins has appeared as recitalist and soloist on three continents, to enthusiastic applause and high critical acclaim.

In June of 1999, Mr. Watkins made a highly successful New York recital debut at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall that elicited a standing ovation from the often-blasé Manhattan audience. Watkins’ debut solo disc for the Saragossa Digital label, which features works from his New York recital, was released in November 1999 to high praise. Folio Weekly, in a review of this disc, called Watkins “a polished player in his prime.”

A native of Ohio, Watkins studied at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, The University of South Carolina, and The Florida State University, numbering among his teachers Bela Siki, Raymond Dudley, Marilyn Neeley and Edward Kilenyi. He has also worked with Eugene Istomin and Alexis Weissenberg. His U.S. debut in Chicago in 1985, an all-Bach recital on the Myra Hess Series, and broadcast live nationwide, was followed by a steady flow of performances in North and South America, Europe and the Caribbean; and festival appearances at the Glenn Could Festival in Toronto, the William Kapell Festival in Maryland, Brevard Music Center, Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, and the Garth Newel Music Festival in Virginia. Other notable engagements include recitals at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., Preston Bradley Hall in Chicago, the Brahms Hall of the Musikverein in Vienna, Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, and Santa Maria di Spaltena in Gaiole, Italy.

Watkins is the recipient of numerous awards, including the John Philip Sousa Award for Outstanding American Musicians, Rotary Club of Florida’s Annual Artistic Merit Award, and France’s Jeunesse Musicales. In 1985, he became the youngest winner ever of The United States’ Department of State’s Artistic Ambassador Award.

His performances have been broadcast frequently in the U.S. and Canada on National Public Radio and Television, and in South America and Europe on The Voice of America. Watkins’ recordings include a disc of late romantic lieder with baritone, Steven White, and two solo discs (one which features works from his New York debut, including works by Beethoven and Schumann, and another, Christmas Cards, which features music for the Holiday Season with works by Bach, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Handel, Grainger, and others).

An active chamber musician, Watkins has performed with the LaSalle Quartet, and is a founding member of the Florida Arts Trio, with whom he is frequently heard. Much in demand as an accompanist, he has appeared with soprano Elizabeth Futral and baritone Steven White for their recital of Wolff’s Italian Song Book in Chicago, and also in recital with violinists Eugene Fodor and Hillary Hahn.

Founded in 1889 and located in Spartanburg, S.C., Converse College is an independent, residential liberal arts college for women with a professional school of music and graduate programs in education, music, and the liberal arts. For more than 100 years, Converse has been guided by one vision-to prepare women to approach the world with intelligence and compassion. An emphasis on leadership development and service learning coupled with career preparation through a liberal arts foundation helps Converse students to find their place among the successful an