Mark Watters:  

After graduation, I attended USC (the one in California, not South Carolina). I had a great time at SC and still am close friends with several classmates. I had every intention of returning to Texas and becoming a band director. But after just 2 weeks of student teaching, I realized that public school teaching was not for me. I changed my major from Music Education to Saxophone Performance. I spent the next 5 years pursuing (i.e. starving as a result of) a career as a saxophone player. Actually, it wasn't that bad. I found a cheap place to live near the beach and played gigs and had a great time! I did take one semester and attended North Texas in pursuit of a Masters degree. I started to realize the limits of my potential. When I turned 25 I got a job conducting a Musical Theater company in Carmel, CA. I had done a little bit of conducting in college but I also did some arranging for the company and even played on some of the jazzier shows. Upon returning to LA in 1981, I happened upon an ad in the LA Times for the UCLA Extension offering a class called "Intr...Expand for more