Prize-winning Music Alumna Returns for Guest Recital

Music alumna Kelly Watkins, a member of the U.S. Coast Guard Band and Brass Quintet, will present a 7 p.m. guest recital on Wednesday, Feb. 24, in Kemp Recital Hall at Illinois State University.  Admission is free and open to the public.

Watkins, who has just returned from a highly successful USCG Brass Quintet concert tour of Taiwan, completed her master's degree in 2003 with Professor Amy Gilreath Major.  That also was the year she won a position in the Coast Guard Band, the first woman ever chosen for the trumpet section, and the year she was awarded grand prize at the International Women's Brass Conference Solo Competition. 

Her trumpet and cornet program, accompanied by pianist Karen Collier, will include "Im Stile von Albéniz by Rodion Shchedrin, "Song" by Richard Lane, "Caprice" by Joseph Turrin, William Presser's Suite for Solo Trumpet, "To A Wild Rose" by MacDowell, the traditional piece "Amazing Grace," "Someone to Watch Over Me" by George Gershwin and Carl Höhne's "Slavische Fantasie."

Watkins, who also performs as the principal solo cornet with the New England Brass Band, last year was awarded first prize in the North American Brass Band Association Adult High Brass Slow Melody Solo competition.  During her Illinois State studies she performed with the Illinois Symphony Orchestra, the Peoria Symphony, Opera Illinois and the ISU Faculty Brass Quintet.

A bachelor's degree recipient from Northwestern State University of Louisiana, Watkins is an active member of the International Trumpet Guild and also serves as the executive director of the International Women's Brass Conference.