Mary Watkins
Comin’ Home, 2020

5-minute a solo piano performance

ARTWORK STATEMENT:

Mary D. Watkins’ music often explores themes rooted in African-American experiences. Whether she is reflecting on the experience of slaves being brought to the U.S., civil rights leaders in the 1960s, or contemporary African-Americans trying to navigate urban environments, she is often exploring the themes of going on a journey and then looking for a resting place. “Comin’ Home” is about finding that hard-won sense of inner peace.

Artist Bio:

Mary D. Watkins is a prolific composer, arranger, producer, pianist, and recording artist. She has won critical praise and awards for her numerous symphonic works, film scores, songs, and pieces for classical and jazz instrumentalists. Her most popular orchestral work, Soul of Remembrance has been recorded by the New Black Music Repertory Ensemble of Chicago (Albany Records 2010), and it has been performed recently by the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and Dallas Symphony. She has also composed three full-length operas on historical themes, Queen Clara (about Clara Barton, 2005); Dark River: The Fannie Lou Hamer Story (2009); and Emmet Till, the Opera (2019), as well as a section of Death By Life (Imprisonment), an opera about mass incarceration commissioned by White Snake Projects, which premiered online in May 2021. Watkins has a degree in classical composition from Howard University, and she has composed both classical and jazz music, often fusing the styles and incorporating other forms of American music including gospel, spiritual, and pop genres. She won a Female Composer grant from Opera America in 2020, and she has previously won composer fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts, Gerbode Foundation, Meet the Composer Foundation, California Arts Council and the City of Oakland. To learn more and watch video excerpts of her work, please visit www.marydwatkins.com.