In 1995 aging band director Charles Watts was hired to conduct the pitiful Fort Worth Country Day School band. Mr. Watts had been involved with music most of his life. He received his masters in music from the University of North Texas, a university know world-wide for its music program. He conducted the Eastern Hills High School concert, jazz and marching bands for almost 20 years, leading them to numerous regional and state titles. He was hired from retirement to turn around the sad FWCDS band.

And it was a sad band. When Mr. Watts arrived, there was no jazz band, there was no marching band, and there were a grand total of 6 students in the concert band. By the time I graduated in 2003, the band totaled over 40 students. You might think, �well, 40 isn�t a lot for a high school band�, but this was at a school of under 400. Doing some quick math, that means that well over 10% percent of the students at the school were in the band. That is a large amount, and that amount was constantly increasing. Not only did Mr. Watts increase the numbers of the band program, but he was responsible for creating a jazz band and then later a marching band. His most important achievement at the school was neither his bolstering of the band�s size nor the creation of the new bands, but the dramatic increase in the quality of band that he was responsible for. After only 4 years of direction, Mr. Watts had taken a band that didn�t even play in any competitions and turned it into the best band in the ISAS (Independent Schools Association of the Southwest), which includes bands from Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, New Mexico and Arizona. We weren�t just the best, we blew away any competition, year in and year out. At the annual ISAS festival, where all the schools would gather in one place for three days and perform, the Fort Worth Country Day Jazz band was always given the best time slots for performance, and we always attracted the largest crowds. We never played at a theatre that could hold all the people that wanted to see us play. The band that played before us benefited from a larger than usual crowd because people got there early to get seats for our performance. Mr. Watts had made a program barely worth the name band, into a sonic powerhouse.

I relate all this to you because during my senior year, Mr. Watts was released. He was allowed to finish the year, but he was then sent on his way. Needless to say (and yet I�m going to anyways) when the student body found out, there was an uproar. A petition containing the signatures of over half of the students at the entire school was presented to the headmaster within two days of discovering the news. Many students and even more parents sent individual letters to the headmaster and the board of trustees, and their offices were flooded with paper for weeks. The student body arranged meetings with the headmaster and trustees to plead Mr. Watts� case. Sadly, it was a battle with the administration that could not be won.

Mr. Watts was released after my senior year, and all he ever did was take a pathetic excuse for a band and turn it into the best band in ISAS, and the best band in Fort Worth Country Day history. The band was continually growing and improving under his skilled direction. Since he was released, the band has already diminished in size, and as members of his bands graduate it will only diminish in quality. It is likely that Fort Worth Country Day will never have a band as good again, but hopefully the great bands of Mr. Watts will be remembered. I know I will remember them.

Viva Watts.

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