Scott Watson

Dr. Scott Watson is a veteran music educator, a frequently commissioned/published composer, and highly regarded music tech enthusiast. Watson has taught instrumental and elective music in the Parkland School District (Allentown, PA) for 35 years and serves as an adjunct professor for a number of universities in the region (including Cairn University, University of the Arts, and Moravian University). In 2015, Watson was recognized by the Parkland School District with a Parkland Pride Award for outstanding achievement, and in 2020 received the Pennsylvania Music Educators Association District 10 Citation of Excellence in Teaching Award. In 2022, Watson received the Phi Beta Mu (Nu Chapter) Outstanding Contributor Award (only the 6th Pennsylvanian so honored).

Watson earned his MMus and DMA in Composition from Temple University, where his principal teachers were Maurice Wright, Matthew Greenbaum, and Clifford Taylor. His unique voice—evident in more than 100 published concert band, string orchestra, and chamber works at all levels—is informed equally by his experiences with contemporary concert art music and the band world. Watson’s music has received recognition from the American Composer’s Forum, American Music Center, and Phi MU Alpha Sinfonia among others, and is regularly performed around the world (including the Academy of Music, Philadelphia; the Midwest Clinic, Chicago; the White House, Washington, D.C.). Watson is an exclusive composer for Alfred Publications, a contributor to the Sound Innovations concert band series, and an Alfred Clinician/Author.

Dr. Watson presents numerous workshops/clinics for music educators around the U.S. and internationally in Australia and Canada), frequently serves as guest conductor for honor/festival bands, and is a member of the Buffett Crampon Educational Advisory Board. He is the author of the highly regarded music education text, Using Technology to Unlock Musical Creativity (©2011, Oxford University Press).