Glenn Watkins

His 20th Century Music course over two semesters was well worth the trials and tribulations one might occasionally feel while living through it; and while the 2nd half of the century had less of a 'personality' than the first half, I, for one, was exceedingly grateful to him for highlighting what he thought was most important, and it was always a pleasure to see him socially in later years and sharing memories of this and other important occurrences in and around southeast lower Michigan...

I wanted to thank professor Watkins for that rarest of pleasures: reading a truly well-written book.

Hearing of Glenn’s passing hit me like a ton of bricks. I don’t think I was ever expecting him to leave us I thought he was immortal. Actually he is immortal in all of our minds who knew him. He was my Stravinsky, my Berg, my Poulenc, and my Gesualdo. My old friends and I all touched base today when hearing the news. What a life-changing soul this man is. Makes you want rejoice in the best parts of us, our humanity to know such a man. I’ll miss you so, friend.

We all felt lucky to be students in Glenn’s classes. He taught us all such deeply layered lessons, not only about music, but also about how to be human beings. His Stravinsky class, taught in Stravinsky’s 100th year, was life-changing. He was at once elevated and down to earth, thoughtful and playful, Apollonian and Dionysian :-) and always kind and supportive, both in and out of the classroom. I will miss Glenn, my dear teacher and friend.

I had the privilege of taking Glenn Watkins’ class in twentieth-century music history, and I believe it was the year that *Soundings* was initially published. He was already a legend, and deservedly so. It was a terrific class, and I enjoyed his teaching so much — not only his amazing depth of knowledge, but his enthusiasm and his knack for tying things together. He even had subtle humorous touches that rewarded attentive students. My favorite was his comments associated with recordings...

Thank you, professor Watkins. You imparted much more than knowledge to your students. Your love of music and of the arts was contagious and we were the beneficiaries. From your lectures in contemporary music, we also learned to appreciate the connection of the music of Les Six in the 20s with the cubism of Picasso, the soirées of Gertrude Stein, the literature of Joyce and the American ex-patriots; to appreciate the connection of Schoenberg and the German expressionist art movement. Your...

I was honored to meet Glenn on his many visits to Wholefoods market on Washtenaw after his daily walk in the morning. He was kind and and did have a dry sense of humor but he always brought me laughter and smiles. I thought of him often during the pandemic and tried to find out if anything if he was ok because he always stopped by to get his no salt added turkey and beets salad. I'll never forget you Glenn thank you for always being so kind to me. R.I.P truly Ms Kim

Glenn will be dearly missed. He was an engaging and insightful friend. My condolences to the family.

I was privileged to learn from Glenn Watkins during the entire course of my graduate years in musicology at UM. His 20th-century music survey began with a fabulous challenge: he played a George Rochberg string quartet and a Ravel (if I remember correctly) and asked us to date the two works. We were surprised to learn that the Rochberg postdated the Ravel. Glenn was ahead of his time in being receptive to interdisciplinarity in such a way that he guided and encouraged me to work on Satie...