Awadagin pratt biography samples
Home / Biography Templates & Examples / Awadagin pratt biography samples
learn more
Generated during the Pandemic as part of Art of the Piano's effort to stay connected with listeners. Since then, he has played numerous recitals throughout the US including performances at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, Chicago’s Orchestra Hall and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
A semi-autobiographical podcast, studded with social, literary and musical insights.
He recently made his conducting debut with the Georgia Symphony Orchestra (Tbilisi); his operatic debut leading Porgy and Bess with the Greensboro Opera (North Carolina); and conducted a concert featuring the music of jazz great Ornette Coleman with Bang on a Can at the Brooklyn Academy of Music.
But Awadagin's creativity cannot be confined to the stage alone.
At the age of 16 he entered the University of Illinois where he studied piano, violin, and conducting.
Stillpoint was recorded in Boston with Roomful of Teeth and A Far Cry.
Title track by Judd Greenstein soon to be orchestrated for full orchestra. Click HERE or call 401-248-7000 to purchase today!
.
Michelle Bauer Carpenter produced a documentary about Black in America which aired on 90 PBS stations across the country earlier this year.Mr.
This spring, he also organized the first Nina Simone Piano Competition for Black Pianists in collaboration with the Cincinnati Symphony, the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music and the Art of the Piano Festival. He has adjudicated the Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, Cleveland International Piano Competition, Minnesota e-Competition, Unisa International Piano Competition, and the International Competition for Young Pianists created in memory of Vladimir Horowitz.
Having recently left his position as Professor and Artist in Residence at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (CCM) after two decades, Awadagin is now Professor of Piano at the San Francisco Conservatory.
He was previously a Professor of Piano and Artist in Residence at the College-Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati for nineteen years.
In recognition of his achievements in the field of classical music, he has received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Johns Hopkins University as well as honorary doctorates from the Berklee College of Music and Illinois Wesleyan and delivered commencement addresses at those institutions as well as at Peabody Conservatory.
Awadagin Pratt is a Yamaha artist.
His breakneck concert schedule has taken him across six continents for performances with the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the New York Philharmonic, and many others; solo recitals at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center; and chamber music collaborations with Zuill Bailey, Simone Dinnerstein, and the Harlem and St.
Lawrence String Quartets.
Highlights of Awadagin's 2023/24 season include concerto appearances with the Nashville, Utah, Bournemouth, and Annapolis Symphonies; A Far Cry at Boston's Jordan Hall; and the Cincinnati, Manitoba, New Century, and IRIS Chamber Orchestras. He remains the only graduate of the Peabody Institute to earn performance certificates in three areas — violin, piano, and conducting — and has received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Johns Hopkins University and honorary doctorates from Illinois Wesleyan University, Susquehanna University, and the Boston Conservatory.
More about Awadagin
More about the Nina Simone Piano Competition
More about Art of the Piano
MEET THE SOLOIST: Awadagin Pratt
Background: Among his generation of concert artists, pianist Awadagin Pratt is acclaimed for his musical insight and intensely involving performances in recital and with symphony orchestras.
Born in Pittsburgh, Awadagin Pratt began studying piano and violin at an early age.
His most recent conducting activities include play/conducting the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh, conducting performances of Porgy and Bess with the Greensboro Opera, and conducting a concert featuring the music of jazz great Ornette Coleman with Bang on a Can at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. Summer festival engagements include appearances at Ravinia, Blossom, Wolftrap, Caramoor, Aspen and the Hollywood Bowl.
Also an experienced conductor, Pratt has conducted programs with the Toledo, New Mexico, Vancouver WA, Winston-Salem and Santa Fe symphonies, the Northwest Sinfonietta, the Concertante di Chicago and several orchestras in Japan.
After witnessing the globally broadcast execution of George Floyd by officers of the Minneapolis Police Department, he published a podcast that quickly evolved into a multimedia musical experience. learn more
San Francisco Conservatory of Music
Awadagin Pratt was appointed to the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music in 2022, following two decades as professor and artist-in-residenceat the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.
At the San Francisco Conservatory, Pratt mentors a superb and select group of young pianists in his studio, has led the SFCM Chamber Orchestra, and leads the Art of the Piano Festival as well as the Nina Simone Piano Competition.
Through his kaleidoscopic career as a pianist, conductor, educator, and curator of memorable musical moments, Awadagin Pratt is actively inventing the artistic world he longs to live in — a world that shines light on rich voices of the past and present, amplifies the diverse talents of today's brightest creative minds, and paves the way for a new generation of inventive musical artists.
Since launching onto the international stage after winning the prestigious Naumburg International Piano Competition in 1992 and receiving a 1994 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Awadagin has received acclaim for delivering "forceful, imaginative, and precisely tinted" performances (Washington Post) and is hailed as "one of the great and distinctive American pianists and conductors of our time" (WGBH).
He has appeared at addresses as familiar as 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue (at the invitation of the Clinton and Obama administrations) and Sesame Street (at the invitation of Big Bird).
His narrative is interspersed with live music performed by Pratt and students, followed by a panel discussion regarding the state of race in America today. All seven works were recorded in summer 2022 with the chamber orchestra A Far Cry for New Amsterdam Records.
In July 2023, Pratt joined the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as a Professor of Piano.
Pratt’s recordings for Angel/EMI include A Long Way From Normal,an all Beethoven Sonata CD, Live From South Africa, Transformations and an all Bach disc with the St. Lawrence String Quartet.
learn more
A festival inspired by Franz Liszt bringing together the world’s most celebrated faculty instructors, a class of future master pianists, and audiences of music lovers, for performances, classes, and a shared passion for the piano. In summer 2023, he began his tenure as the Music Director of the Miami Valley Symphony Orchestra in Ohio.
A great believer in working with young people, he has created a program called Black in America during which he tells about his encounters with the police, especially while driving, starting when he was a teenager and continuing through his post graduate studies and into his adulthood.
Recital engagements include performances at Kaufman Music Center's Merkin Hall, a program of four-hand music with Simone Dinnerstein at the Washington Performing Arts Society, and an appearance at the Irving S. Gilmore International Piano Festival. This 23/24 season marks his first as Principal Conductor of the Miami Valley Symphony Orchestra and a return to the podium of the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh.