Romancefor two English horns and pianoby Ken Watson - American composer Originally for two English horns and orchestra, this piano reduction is by the composer. ABOUT THE COMPOSER Ken Watson is a free-lance oboist and composer/arranger. He earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Music Composition from Southern Methodist University in 1974. While in school he composed and directed the sound track for an award-winning short documentary film, Sometimes I Run, currently preserved in the film vault of the Moving Image Research Collection (MIRC) at the University of South Carolina. After graduation, he served as a member of “The President’s Own” US Marine Band for two and a half years. He became a regular Marine line officer in 1976 and flew A-6E Intruders and EA-6B Prowlers. He later wrote and edited doctrine textbooks and served as an electronic warfare/information warfare specialist on senior staffs, retiring from the Marine Corps in 1997 as a Lieutenant Colonel. Ken had a second career with Cisco Systems, creating and managing its Critical Infrastructure Protection team. He retired from Cisco in 2011. Ken has played with the Austin, Corpus Christi, and San Antonio, Texas symphonies, as well as Associate Principal Oboe in the Okinawa Symphony. He studied oboe with Evelyn McCarty, Don Baker, and Eric Barr, and composition with Alvin Epstein and Thom David Mason. His Suite for Oboe and Jazz Piano Trio was premiered in New York City in August 2014 by Peter Cooper, principal oboist with the Colorado Symphony, at the International Double Reed Society's annual conference. He conducted the partial premiere of his Missa Jubilate Deo at the Lincoln Cathedral, England, in July 2016. His Concerto for Bassoon and Chamber Orchestra was premiered by the “President’s Own” US Marine Chamber Orchestra and its principal bassoonist, Chris McFarlane, in February 2016. Ken has published arrangements for double-reed ensembles and double-reed choir and released two CDs: The Barret Quartets and Mendelssohn, Gershwin, Still. His arrangements and compositions for double-reed solo instruments and ensembles are available from TrevCo Music Publishing, including the 40 Progressive Melodies from the Barret Oboe Method.
