Thaler Concert Pianist Series to Feature Awadagin Pratt

Virtuoso pianist Awadagin Pratt — acclaimed as one of "50 leaders of tomorrow" by Ebony magazine — will give a free recital at the College on Friday, October 6. Pratt is this year’s guest artist in the Rachel S. Thaler Concert Pianist Series. His performance, which begins at 8:15 p.m. in Ford Hall, will feature The Italian Ground, by Gibbons; two works by J. S. Bach, Contrapunctus I from Art of Fugue and Chromatic Fantasy and Fugue in D Minor; Beethoven’s Sonata in A-flat Major, op.110; and Liszt’s Sonata in B Minor.

Pratt grew up in Normal, Illinois, but his childhood was anything but normal. His parents were professors at Illinois State University and encouraged their children to excel in whatever they pursued. Pratt began formal study of the piano at age six and started violin instruction at nine. He also took tennis lessons, often spending two hours a day on the courts.

"I was never one of those high-powered young music students who were always practicing hours and hours a day," he says. "I simply liked the music. I had evident talent, but not at any time was it the priority. I didn’t practice that much. Most of my energy was devoted to tennis."

However, Pratt turned down an offer of a tennis scholarship from Kalamazoo College to enroll in violin and piano studies at the University of Illinois. "At that point I suppose I realized my talent in a more real perspective, that it was possible to have a life professionally," he says.

Pratt decided to transfer to Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory of Music, where he astounded faculty members with his unique musical perspective. Former piano professor Robert Weirich said of Pratt, "When he plays, he’s one of the very rare people who make you hear a piece as if for the first time."

When Pratt graduated from Peabody, he was that institution’s first student to receive triple honors: performer’s certificates in piano and violin and a graduate performance diploma in conducting. In 1992, at age 26, he won the Walter W. Naumberg Foundation International Piano Competition, becoming the first African American to win what many consider one of the top international piano competitions. Since then Pratt has performed across the United States, including at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, and the White House. He has played with most of the major symphony orchestras in this country and at many summer festivals, including Ravinia, Blossom, Wolf Trap, Caramoor, and Aspen. He has performed internationally in Japan, Germany, South Africa, Israel, and throughout the Caribbean. Pratt has also been featured on a number of radio and television programs, including Performance Today, CBS Sunday Morning, and Sesame Street, as well as in such magazines as Newsweek and People.

Pratt’s discography on the EMI label includes A Long Way from Normal, Beethoven Piano Sonatas, Live from South Africa, and Transformations.

Established in 1991 in honor of a talented pianist and longtime College supporter, the Rachel S. Thaler Concert Pianist Series has brought to campus such world-class virtuosos as Jon Nakamatsu, Yefim Bronfman, Gilbert Kalish, Garrick Ohlsson, and Angela Hewitt.

For more information on Pratt, visit his Web pages. Information on the concert schedule at Ithaca College is available on the music calendar pages.