Tales from the Symphony

This book contains conversations with over a dozen African American musicians currently performing—or who have previously performed—in America’s major symphony orchestras. These conversations shed light on the realities of African American musicians playing in a musical environment that forbade their membership over half a century ago.

Robert Lee Watt studied French horn at the New England Conservatory of Music with Harry Shapiro of the Boston Symphony. In 1970, he was hired by the Los Angeles Philharmonic as assistant first French horn under maestro Zubin Mehta, making him the first African American French hornist hired by a major symphony in the United States.