The Clinicians

Alfred L. Watkins is Co-Founder, Musical Director and Conductor of the Cobb Wind Symphony, an all-adult community band in Marietta, GA. In 2013, he concluded his 37-year career as a high school band director, including serving as Director of Bands at Lassiter High School in Marietta, Georgia for 31 years. Dr. Watkins is a 1976 graduate of Florida A & M University with additional study in Music Education and Conducting at Georgia State University. Ensembles under Watkins’ batons have performed at the Midwest Band Clinic five times, featured band performances at the Music For All National Festival six, six performances at the G.M.E.A. Convention and six performances at the College Band Directors/NBA Biennial Convention. The Lassiter Trojan Marching Band has performed in four Pasadena Tournament of Roses Parades and three times in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. They are the 2-time Bands of America Grand National Champions, winners of 9 Bands of America Regional Champions and winners of 122 0f 130 marching band contest entered.

Bands under his leadership have earned John Philip Sousa Foundation’s Sudler Flag of Honor in 1988, (for outstanding concert bands), Sudler Shield in 1998, (for outstanding marching band) and the Sudler Silver Scroll, 2009 (for outstanding community band). Watkins is one of a small group of band directors to hold three Sudler Awards simultaneously.

Dr. Watkins has been selected as a member of the American Bandmasters Association, the Florida A & M University Gallery of Distinguished Alumni, the Georgia Chapter of the Phi Beta Mu Hall of Fame and the Bands of America Hall of Fame. He received the Edwin Franko Goldman Award from ASBDA and is a recipient with the Midwest Clinic Medal of Honor. He has served as the Guest Conductor of the World Youth Wind Symphony at the Interlochen Arts Camp and has served as guest conductor of the United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own” on the West Lawn at the U.S. Capitol, Washington, D.C. He was the recipient of the Kappa Kappa Psi Honorary Band Fraternity’s prestigious Distinguished Service to Music Medal and has recently been selected as the Phi Beta Mu International Band Director Fraternity International Bandmaster of the Year. In 2022, Watkins was the recipient of the Outstanding Conductor Award from the Association of Concert Bands. Also in 2022, Watkins was awarded the Doctor of Music Education Honoris Causa from the VanderCook College of Music. He has received 25 Certificates of Excellence from the National Band Association, the Sudler Order of Merit from the John Philip Sousa Foundation along with the Band World Magazine Legion of Honor Award. Dr. Watkins is Co-Founder, Musical Director and Conductor of the Cobb Wind Symphony (1999), an all-adult community band based in the Metro Atlanta area. In 2009 and 2010, two doctoral dissertations were written highlighting his life and centered around his work with the Lassiter Band Program. Currently Dr. Watkins is President and Co-Founder of the Minority Band Director National Association, Inc., an organization charged to serve, promote, celebrate and mentor minority band directors throughout the country. He is currently an Educational Clinician for the Conn-Selmer Corporation and Perform America. The $1.5 million Alfred L. Watkins Band Building at Lassiter High School bears his name.

He and his wife for 37 years, Rita, live in Marietta, GA. They have two adult sons: Christopher, a trumpeter in the United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own” in Washington, D.C. and Jonathan, a businessman in Atlanta. They have two grandchildren.

Dr. Patrick E. Young is director of bands and assistant professor of tuba and euphonium at Samford University. He works with the athletic bands, conducts the wind ensemble, teaches undergraduate and graduate conducting and leads the tuba and euphonium studio. Before joining Samford, Young served as director of bands and low brass at Idaho State University and Young Harris College.
 

An active conducting clinician and adjudicator, Young works with regional and state-level wind bands and is regularly invited to adjudicate solo, marching and large ensemble competitions across the western and southeastern United States. He previously served as higher education chair for the Idaho Bandmasters Association, where he organized the annual Idaho All-Collegiate Band. He routinely commissions and premieres new works by younger and underrepresented composers for wind band and frequently presents at state and national music conferences. His past presentations include Sing Through Your Baton – Expressive Conducting for the Band Director, Conducting Tips: A Performer’s Perspective, SPEAK CLEARLY: Articulation Tips for the Band Director, cNAFME - Preparing for the Job Interview and Exploring Chat GPT for Music Teachers.
 

In addition to his duties at Samford, Young is principal tubist of Opera Colorado in Denver and the Taneycomo Festival Orchestra in Branson, Missouri. As a soloist, he has performed at International Tuba & Euphonium Conferences and regional conferences in the Southeast and Northwest. He received two Global Music Awards in the solo instrumentalist and creativity categories for his album Counting Rests and won first place in the Rocky Mountain Brass Solo Contest. He was also a two-time semifinalist in the International Leonard Falcone Festival and Competition in Michigan and previously served as principal tubist with the Symphony of the Rockies and the Longmont Symphony Orchestra in Colorado.
 

An advocate for chamber music, Young regularly provides chamber coaching and tuba/euphonium masterclasses with the Cantare Brass Quintet, a group dedicated to premiering new and diverse works for brass quintet while also performing classic repertoire. He has coached at institutions including the University of Georgia, Georgia State University, Kennesaw State University, Colorado State University, the University of Northern Colorado, the University of Wyoming, the University of Utah, Boise State University, Brigham Young University–Idaho and the University of Oregon. In 2019, he toured Russia as a guest artist with the Fortress Brass Quintet, performing as a soloist with the St. Petersburg Conservatory Orchestra, teaching masterclasses and lessons and presenting recitals at the Moscow Conservatory, the Gnessin Musical College and the St. Petersburg Conservatory.
 

Young is a Melton Meinl Weston and B&S Tuba performing artist and a member of the International Tuba Euphonium Association, the National Association for Music Education, the College Band Directors National Association and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers. He earned a bachelor of music education from Young Harris College, a master of music performance in tuba from the University of Georgia and a doctorate of musical arts in music performance and pedagogy from the University of Colorado Boulder.
 

In his free time, Young enjoys grilling, watching the Atlanta Braves and hiking with his wife, Jenna, and their Siberian husky, Kirby.