Festival of Winds Information

Leslie W. Hicken taught on the faculty of Furman University from the fall of 1993 until his retirement in 2019. Within the music department, his responsibilities included the directorship of the Symphonic Band and Wind Ensemble; professor of music education and instrumental conducting; and Assistant Director with the Marching Band. He was also the Director of the Furman Music by the Lake Concert Series and the Lakeside Concert Band. Dr. Hicken recently retired as the Artistic Director of the Carolina Youth Symphony, a position he held for 24 years. 

Prior to his appointment at Furman, Hicken was Director of Bands at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio. In addition to his duties at Youngstown State, he was the director of the Youngstown Symphony Youth Orchestra and a clarinetist in the Youngstown Symphony Orchestra. Earlier in his career, Hicken was employed for five years as an instrumental music teacher in the Durham (NC) County School system. He began his musical career as a clarinetist in the United States Military Academy Band at West Point, NY.

Dr. Hicken received his Bachelor of Music degree from the Eastman School of Music, a Masters of Arts in Teaching from Teachers College, Columbia University, and a Doctorate in Music Education from Indiana University. He studied clarinet with D. Stanley Hasty, Leon Russianoff, and Bernard Portnoy; and conducting with J. Marion Magill, Robert Klotman, and Ray Cramer.

Sue Samuels returned to Furman University, her alma mater, in 2019 as Director of Bands and Coordinator of Music Education Studies. Since she arrived at Furman, the Furman Symphonic Band has received invitational performances at the South Carolina Music Educators Conference, the Grainger Festival in Chicago, and the Sousa Festival in Washington, DC, and the Paladin Regiment Marching Band performed in Dublin Ireland’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Dr. Samuels’ teaching experience prior to her arrival at Furman includes 3 years as Director of Visual and Performing Arts at Randolph School in Huntsville, Alabama, 14 years as Director of Bands at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, 2 years as Director of Bands at WT Woodson High School in Fairfax, Virginia, 1 year as Assistant Director of Bands at the University of Georgia, and 12 years as Assistant Director of Bands at Lassiter High School in Marietta Georgia. She received her Bachelor of Music Education degree from Furman University, a Master’s Degree in Conducting from Georgia State University, and her PhD in Music Education from Auburn University.

In addition to her work as a band director, Dr. Samuels enjoys being a mom to her beautiful son, Andrew, whom she adopted from Ethiopia in 2010.

Dr. Alfred L. Watkins is former Director of Bands at Lassiter High School in Marietta, Georgia for 31 of his 37 years until his retirement from the classroom in 2013. He is currently Co-Founder, Musical Director and Conductor of the Cobb Wind Symphony, a premier all-adult community band in Metro Atlanta.  Mr. Watkins is a 1976 graduate of Florida A & M University with additional studies at Georgia State University. In July 2022, he was conferred an Honorary Doctorate from the VanderCook College of Music. His bands have earned the Sudler Flag of Honor (concert), Sudler Shield (marching) and the Sudler Silver Scroll (community band) making his one of the few directors in the country to hold three Sudler Awards simultaneously. Concert bands under Watkins’ leadership have performed at 32 invitational concert band events. He has conducted All-State High School Bands in 33 states and has worked with bands in 38 states. 

Ensembles under Dr. Watkins’ batons have performed five times at the Midwest Band Clinic, six times at the Music for All National Festival, G.M.E.A. Convention (14x) and the National Band Association Convention. The Lassiter Trojan Marching Band has performed in Tournament of Roses Parades four times and three times in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in NYC. They are the 1998 and 2002 Bands of America Grand National Marching Band Champions and winner of nine BOA Regionals. The Lassiter Winter Color Guard was named the 1996 and 1997 W.G.I. World Champions. The Lassiter Concert Percussion Ensemble won the Percussive Arts Society “Call for Tapes” in 2007 and performed at the Midwest Clinic in 2004 and 2011.

Dr. Watkins is a member of the American Bandmasters Association, Florida A & M University Gallery of Distinguished Alumni and in the Hall of Fames of Conn Selmer Institute, Band of America, Minority Band Directors National Association, and the Georgia Chapter of Phi Beta Mu Band Directors Fraternity. He has received Midwest Clinic Medal of Honor, is a Midwest Clinic Legend, received the American School Band Director Association’s “Edwin Franko Goldman Award,” the Kappa Kappa Psi Band Fraternity’s “Distinguished Service to Music Award,” was the 2020 Phi Beta Mu “International Bandmaster of the Year” and was awarded the “2022 Outstanding Conductor Award” presented by the Association of Community Bands. He has received 28 Certificates of Excellence from the NBA, the Sudler Order of Merit from the John Philip Sousa Foundation, and the Band World Magazine Legion of Honor Award.  Dr. Watkins is a Co-Founder of the Minority Band Director National Association, an organization dedicated to serve, promote, celebrate, and mentor ethnic minority band directors in America. Along with Dr. Sue Samuels, in 1988, Watkins pioneered the concept of the Symphonic Band Camp, an early winter, 3-day intensive local concert band event dedicated to the development of concert bands in your home school.

The $1.5 million Alfred L. Watkins Band Building at Lassiter High School bears his name. He and his wife of 41 years, Rita, live in Marietta, GA. They have two adult sons: Christopher, a trumpeter in the United States Army Band “Pershing’s Own” in Washington, D.C. and Jonathan, a businessman in Nashville. They have two grandchildren.

Tom Brantley has served on USF’s Music Faculty since 1999 as Professor of Trombone, where he emphasizes both Classical and Jazz Trombone in his applied lessons.  Brantley also leads the USF Trombone Octet, Trombone Choir, Trombone Bands I and II, and Trombone Quartets.  In 2024 he was named Director of Jazz Studies where his responsibilities include leading USF Jazz Ensemble I and setting the vision and direction for the whole Jazz program.
 
From 1995 to the present, Brantley toured, performed, and recorded with Rhythm and Brass, an internationally regarded chamber ensemble. As a soloist and with Rhythm and Brass, he has performed all over the world, including extensive tours of Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Australia. With Rhythm and Brass, he recorded three CDs and published a chamber music book for Universal Publications entitled Team Play.  Brantley’s solo recordings include Boneyard on the Summit Record Label. He has two additional recordings – collaborating with colleagues in small groups to create the CDs Confluences and Obsessed with Treasure. In addition, he created an etude book entitled Stylistic Etudes for Trombone, which has been published by Carl Fischer, Inc. (NYC). He made recordings of each etude, to assist students who work on them. His first etude collection for Carl Fischer, Essential Etudes for Trombone, was published in 2015 and was also warmly received by trombone teachers and students.
 
Brantley earned a Bachelor’s degree in Music from the University of Southern Mississippi and a Master’s degree in Music from the University of North Texas. His teachers include: Marta Hofacre, Raoul Jerome, Tom Fraschillo, Robert Schmaltz, Christian Lindberg, Vern and Jan Kagarice, Royce Lumpkin, Neil Slater, Keith Johnson, and Joseph Alessi. Tom Brantley has been a Yamaha Performing Artist since 1995.