PAMELA BASKIN-WATSON established a notable reputation in New York City as a freelance accompanist, in demand for her ability to play many styles. She also taught at the notable Harlem School of the Arts, (1992-2000) serving as founder and director/pianist of the Vocal Jazz Ensemble at HSA.

As composer/arranger/lyricist, several of Ms. Watson’s compositions have been recorded by artists such as Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, Bobby Watson and Horizon, 29th St. Saxophone Quartet, The Blue Note Super Blue Big Band, Tailor-Made Big Band, and Roy Hargrove, Deborah Brown, Betty Carter, Kevin Mahogany, Mark Murphy, Terell Stafford, Victor Lewis, James Williams, The Boys’ Choir of Harlem, World Youth Choir, and Kevin Mahogany.

Ms. Watson, resident of Kansas City since 2001, works as a freelance musician, often working with area theaters serving as MD/pianist:
Metropolitan Ensemble Theater
Kiss Me, Kate/ Parade/9 to 5 (pianist-2018)
City of Angels (assistant MD/Pianist-2019)

Black Repertory Theater of KC
Dreamgirls (pianist-2016,)
Five Guys Named Moe (MD 2017)
Memphis (MD/2022)

Spinning Tree Theater
Nine /Finian’s Rainbow (pianist-2017)
Once On This Island (MD/pianist 2018)
Emotional Creature (music supervisor/2019)
Billy Elliot (MD/pianist 2019)
Girlfriend (MD/pianist Jan. 24-Feb 9, 2020)
Children of Eden, Jr (MD/pianist-2021)
21 Chump Street (MD/pianist-2022)

Music Theater Heritage
In The Heights (MD/pianist August-Sept. 1, 2019)
Caberet (MD/pianist August-Sept., 2022)

On March 2nd 2020, Ms. Watson was asked to give a presentation honoring the life of Jazz pianist HAZEL SCOTT as part of the SCHOMBERG CENTER FOR BLACK RESEARCH WOMEN’S JAZZ FESTIVAL.
Ms. Watson has partnered with the incomparable Nedra Dixon to develop a new work entitled ‘A GOD·SIB’S TALE: A Folk Opera’ (Watson-book/music/lyrics, Dixon-book/additional lyrics). It was workshopped on Jan. 4th-7th, 2022, then presented in a staged reading on January 8th as part of the BLACK REPERTORY THEATRE of KANSAS CITY’s New Works Festival.

In 2024, Ms. Watson served as arranger and co-music director for NINA SIMONE: FOUR WOMEN, a co-production between Kansas City Repertory Theater (February 13th through March 3rd) and Milwaukee Repertory Theater (February 19th through May 5th).

NEDRA DIXON is a theatre artist…a “triple threat” performer– Actor/Singer/Dancer. And she adds Director/Choreographer to that “threat”. She has received critical acclaim in venues from Broadway and Off-Broadway, National tours, and regional theatres with credits including Bubblin’ Brown Sugar, Tintypes, Hair, Jesus Christ Superstar, Godspell, Into the Woods, Thoroughly Modern Millie, Oklahoma, Annie, Children of Eden, Anything Goes, And the World Goes ‘Round,   Jerry’s Girls, Little Shop of Horrors, The King and I, Man of La Mancha, Songs for A New World, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, to name just a few.  She has shared the stage with such eclectic artists as Kristin Chenoweth to Meat Loaf and has worked with noted theatre industry powerhouses including Stephen Schwartz, John Caird, Susan Stroman, Jerry Zaks, Richardo Khan, Luther Henderson and Charles Strouse and Lee Adams.  Director/Choreographer credits include Hair: Then and Now, In The Heights, Once On This Island, Grey Gardens, Sophisticated Ladies, Children of Eden and Beehive.  She has performed at the White House, twice, during the Ford Administration, and she performed at the Kennedy Center when Eubie Blake was celebrated for his life-long contributions to the world of music.  Currently living in Kansas City, she is very active in its vibrant arts scene, featured in productions of Company, Pride and Prejudice, Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill (as “Billie Holiday”), Welcome To Fear City, A Raisin in the Sun, The Piano Lesson, Tomorrow, Inshallah!, Project Dawn, Black Pearl Sings!, The Wiz, Ruined, bare:  A Pop Opera, The Women of Brewster Place, And Her Hair Went With Her, and Gumbo House, a Kansas City premier. And in certainly an unexpected turn, Nedra can be seen in popular rapper, Tech N9ne’s Hip-Hop music video, Fear, which has been viewed over 2.7 million times on YouTube. For five years, she appeared as “Featured Vocalist/Co-Host” on Kansas City’s NPR-affiliated jazz show, 12^th STREET JUMP.  Nedra currently serves on the Board of Directors and the Artistic Committee of Kansas City Actors Theatre (KCAT).  She served on the Board of Directors of the Black Repertory Theatre of Kansas City in its inaugural year.  She is proudly a member of Spinning Tree Theatre’s “Re-imagining Team”, as well as their “Scholarship Team”.

Nedra has partnered with her divinely gifted colleague and very dear friend, Pamela Baskin-Watson, as Libretto/Additional Lyrics writer, on the development of A GOD·SIB’S TALE:  A Folk Opera, a new musical work.  This dynamic, exciting endeavor, fiercely in progress, was recently presented as a staged reading in Kansas City, January ’22, as a part of the Black Repertory Theatre of Kansas City’s “New Werks Festival”.

As an artist who is ever-curious, ever-evolving, Nedra expresses her views of life, the arts, the theatre and its vital importance, in her own small musings…

“To be perfect is maybe only a dream… an uncatchable concept some of us constantly chase…

But the beauty of being human, the beauty of our imperfection, is that we have the ability and sometimes the desire and the discipline, also the inspiration, to create incessantly, and hopefully with passion, a moment in time and space suspended, that is… almost perfect… almost without flaw…almost God-like…except for the presence of its humanity…

Beautiful.”