Photo caption: Dr Alexandra Watson has graduated with her fourth degree.
Alexandra Hope Watson has just graduated with a Doctor of Musical Arts, adding it to her Master of Arts in Music (studying both performance and composition), Bachelor of Music, and Bachelor of Science (majoring in Mathematics), all from Te Whare Wānanga o Waitaha | University of Canterbury (UC).
“So, four degrees down, who knows how many to come?” she laughs.
Dr Watson, who plays the piano, cello, flute, harp and violin, as well as being a talented singer, is also a pilot who gained her licence to fly at 17 and has competed in national aerobatics competitions.
But musical theatre is her passion and she recently returned from the United Kingdom where she produced two of her original musicals, The First 8 and CLEO, at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, the world’s largest performing arts festival. Both productions received very positive reviews.
The First 8 tells the true story of the first eight female pilots to fly for the Air Transport Auxiliary during WWII, and CLEO is inspired by the life of Cleopatra VII, the last queen of Egypt.
Dr Watson wrote the music, book and lyrics for both musicals, and was responsible for their production and Musical Direction at the Fringe. She oversaw every aspect of the shows, from writing and arranging the music to casting, rehearsals and production. She says she is inspired to write about the experiences of influential women in history.
“My doctoral thesis looked at how Cleopatra has been represented in performance arts over the years, and in my composition, I wanted to show her in a different light from the way she has been stereotypically portrayed.
“The next musical I am planning to write is based on Florence Nightingale. I always like to present a female historical figure that I think people should know more about."
Dr Watson, who was born in the United Kingdom but has lived in Christchurch since she was 13, has been the Musical Director of the North Canterbury Academy of Music since 2021. She is also a contract simulator pilot for Airways International Ltd, supporting the training of air traffic controllers.
She enjoyed being able to pursue her enjoyment of maths and physics at UC while also following her love of music. "Doing both maths and music was really important to me because, when I finished my degrees, I could then choose which one I wanted to continue with."
In 2024, Dr Watson’s composition A Magical Musical Mystery, based on a collection of Lewis Carroll’s nonsense poems, was performed by Dr Watson and solo singers and accompanied by the Christchurch Symphony Orchestra. The concert was the first time that a student-composer from UC had collaborated with the orchestra in this way.
She would love to work with a large orchestra again. “The dream really is to perform my two new musicals with a symphony orchestra, particularly CLEO, because that's how I always envisaged it to be. But, as you can imagine, it takes significant funding for that type of project to come together.
“And so for now, it will have to be smaller productions. But that's something that I would love to build towards. And if the opportunity came about, then I would take it with both hands.”
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