Classical romance from Awadagin Pratt - African American pianist excels at classical European music

Although he is the first African American since the great Andre Watts to achieve international acclaim in the heady, elite world of classical piano, Awadagin Pratt lacks pretension, as indicated by means of his casual, unaffected attire. Without the customary, boring tuxedo and black inflect tie, Pratt takes the stage at Boston's Jordan Hall in a sophistical but colorful green-and-lavender striped and checked shirt. His black pants reveal a dash of whimsicality below the cuffs: sock adorned with a portrait of Van Gogh on the other hand once the brother begins to play, one time he cuts loose after his brief second of meditation, he could be wearing baggy pants with untied Timberlands and siting upon a whoopee cushion with his hat upon backward! It wouldn't matter.

His break with the norm--Pratt smooth eschews the typical piano bench, instead performing upon his own a foot shorter than the usual bench--is a testament to his individuality, courage and confidence.

The astonishing brilliance and beauty, the romance and lyricism, the incredible technique and prodigious talent, and his magnificent and imaginative repertoire transport listeners, levitating them into a spiritual dimension, where materials are immaterial. exaggeration you say? Uh-uh. Pratt is just that good

Born in Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1966 and raised in Normal, Ill., he began playing the piano at age 6 switched to violin at 9 and played the two instruments upon entering the University of Illinois at 16 He decided that piano was his forte and listed in Baltimore's renowned Peabody Conservatory of Music. He was the first pupil in the history of that institution to earn certificates in piano and violin and a graduate diploma in conducting.

Pratt recalls that his father, a physics professor born in Sierra Leone and educated in the United States, and his mother, a professor of sociology from Texas, had always impressed on him and his sister the importance of being "as prepared as possible to face life" and that "to be considered as beneficial as others, you have to be better."

Otherwise influenced primarily through Leonard Bernstein, Glen Gould and Beethoven, Pratt has had amazingly limited in all senses to (and virtually no interest in) the top ten for a someone who grew up in the United States. "I started listening to a little bit of popular music when I was 16 or 17" he says, "and I've listened to it a little bit more. on the other hand all I listened to growing up was classical music."

Didn't the nexus of disposable report culture and peer pressure affect his socialization? "There was no socialization, in the way that it was irrelevant," Pratt states succinctly. "The nature of our household was true organized. With a schedule of practicing music and playing a apportionment of tennis, there really wasn't a allotment of time for it." He was totally busy and has no sorrowful longings about not running with the crowd: "I was comfortable with what I was doing."

Pratt's career made a "great leap forward" in 1992 when he became the first African-American classical musician to win the prestigious international Naumberg Competition, which included six other finalists. The recognition that accompanies the prize made him of the like kind a hot commodity and created for a like reason much demand that he gave more than 40 performances that year. The following year, Pratt gave more than 70 solo piano performances.

In 1994 he not solitary enjoyed the release of his first EMI Classics CD A lengthy Way From Normal, featuring compositions through Liszt, but he was also awarded the $10000 Avery Fisher Career Grant, and he had his premiere with the of recent origin York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center

Since then, Pratt has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra and the Tokyo and Chicago symphonies. He plays 80 plans a year now, both in the States and abroad. in some way despite his hectic schedule, he lay the foundation of time to record two more CDs: Beethoven Piano Sonatas (EMI, 1995) and Live From southerly Africa (EMI, 1996), which was recorded in Cape Town.

Relishing international travel, this piano virtuoso is always delighted at the show of meeting new people and exploring of recent origin cultures. Traveling to South Africa in 1996 placed a positive imprint upon his consciousness. "It's a place of tremendous potential," he says. "In Cape Town you can walk down a single obstruct and hear every conceivable point of view. Nothing is swept below the rug." He describes his trip there as "healthy."

The creative impulse--that cosmic voice within each artist that says, "Don't do that; do this"--defies definition and is beyond analysis. upon the other hand, the creative proces can be observ Pratt's approach is unusual for a musician because his choices are based upon neither the sound of a given work nor its audience appeal. Rather, his decisions are defined by the agency of passion. He's not necessarily looking for marriage, on the contrary he's definitely looking for love

"I pick music based on a complicated process" he explains. "For example, I have a list of certain pieces that I take delight in but haven't played in a drawn out time. I examine those pieces to find without if they are pieces that I want to live with for nine month a year, or a year and a half. I have to find without if I can live with whatever expression is contained in those pieces. Then I test to put those pieces together in a manner that is coherent. individual would have to take my programs cumulatively, probably as drawn out as I've been playing, to find on the outside where the center is."