Dr. Rebecca Hagen Watson serves as Chair, Department of Music Education and Assistant Professor of Double Reeds at Liberty University in Lynchburg, VA, and holds the position of Second Bassoon of the National Philharmonic Orchestra in Washington, DC and bassoonist and contrabassoonist with the Britt Festival Arts Orchestra in Oregon. She held the position of Bassoonist and Contrabassoonist with the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, Germany for 8 seasons. During her tenure as Bassoonist and Contrabassoonist with the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern in Germany, she also had the opportunity to perform, broadcast, record, and tour with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, the Suedwest Rundfunk Kaiserslautern, the Saarlaendische Rundfunk Orchester, the Mainzer Stadttheater, and others. Concurrently, she studied with Marc Engelhardt, Professor of Bassoon at the Musikhochschule Stuttgart.
Rebecca Watson completed her Doctorate at the University of Arizona, studying bassoon with Dr. William Dietz. She concurrently studied oboe with Dr. Sara Fraker, Professor of Oboe at the U of AZ, and oboist with the Tucson Symphony.
Dr. Watson graduated with her Master’s degree, Magna Cum Laude, from the Robert Schumann Musikhochschule, Duesseldorf, in Germany, studying with Gustavo Núñez, Principal Bassoon of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam. She received her B.M. in Bassoon Performance from the University of Minnesota, studying with John Miller and Norbert Nielubowski.
She has performed with the National Symphony, the Houston Ballet, the San Antonio Symphony, the Britt Festival Orchestra, the Corpus Christi Symphony, the Baltimore Concert Artists, and many other ensembles. She has formerly taught at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi, Washington Adventist University, and the University of Texas at San Antonio. She attended the European Mozart Academy, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival, the Sarasota Music Festival, and the MMCK Festival in Japan.
Dr. Watson frequently performs recitals and masterclasses across the country, and has been a featured soloist on live and recorded broadcasts of Arizona Public Radio.
