Willie Anthony Waters

Willie Anthony Waters (born October 11, 1951) is an American conductor specializing in opera. He was the first African American to become artistic director of a major opera company,  and is noted as one of the few black conductors to experience worldwide success.

Early life and education
Waters was born in 1951 in Goulds, Florida, Miami, and grew up there.

A graduate of the University of Miami, he received his master's degree in conducting from Memphis State University in 1975.

Career
Waters made his professional conducting debut in 1979, with the Utah Symphony.

He served as general and artistic director of the Connecticut Opera (1999–2009),was music director and principal conductor of the Florida Grand Opera (1986–1995), during his tenure he conducted Salome, Manon Lescaut, Die Walküre, Macbeth, Aida, Of Mice and Men, Falstaff, Bianca e Falliero, Cristoforo Colombo, La Gioconda, Turandot, Tosca, Carmen and Lucia di Lammermoor. and has been the opera conductor and artistic director at the Houston Ebony Opera Guild (1995). He was also the music director of the San Antonio Festival, 1983–1985

Waters was guest conductor at opera companies including the Australian Opera, Deutsche Oper Berlin, New York City Opera, Cape Town Opera, Fort Worth Opera, and San Diego Opera, also the Brucknerhaus Orchestra (Linz, Austria), Detroit Symphony, Essen (Germany) Philharmonic, Florida Philharmonic, Indianapolis Symphony, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Spoleto Festival, Southwest German Radio Orchestra, and Tallahassee Symphony. In 1995 he conducted the premiere of Porgy and Bess in Cape Town, South Africa.

In 2005, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Hartford.

Waters has been the musical director of the Martina Arroyo Foundation and the Prelude to Performance Summer Opera Training Institute.

He recorded for Phillips the recital Ol' Man River conducting bass Simon Estes with the Munich Radio Orchestra and a recital with the mezzo-soprano Shirley Verrett.

He conducted the Cleveland Orchestra in 2016 in a concert dedicated to Martin Luther King at the Severance Hall.

Maestro Waters suffered a stroke around 2019 that keeps him away from professional activity and was admitted for COVID in 2020 in his hometown, where he currently resides in a care center.

Awards and honors
Waters received the Prix de Martell, which recognizes champions of classical music, in 1991.

He was the recipient of the National Opera Association's "Lift Every Voice" Legacy Award for 2013.