André Watts
André Watts (born June 20, 1946 in Nuremberg ) is a classical pianist and professor at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University Bloomington .
Live and act
Watts was born in Nuremberg as the son of the Hungarian pianist, Maria Alexandra Gusmits, and the US officer, Herman Watts.
He spent his early childhood in Europe and lived mostly on bases where his father was stationed. He began to learn the violin at the age of four, but decided to play the piano at the age of six . At the age of eight, the family moved for professional reasons to Philadelphia ( Pennsylvania , USA). His mother taught him the piano, and since he did not enjoy practicing, his mother tried to motivate him with stories about the pianist and composer Franz Liszt . Watts had taken a liking to Liszt and was influenced by his dramatic style of play. He played his first competition at the age of 9 to get the chance to play a children's concert with the Philadelphia Orchestra . He competed with a piece by Joseph Haydn and won. At the age of 10 he performed Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Robin Hood Dell Orchestra , and at the age of 14 César Franck's Symphonic Variations with the Philadelphia Orchestra. At the age of 16 he made his debut with the New York Philharmonic on January 12, 1963 under the direction of Leonard Bernstein with Liszt's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major at a Young People's Concert in the Philharmonic Hall . A few weeks later he stepped in for the sick Glenn Gould with the same work . For his first album The Exciting Debut of André Watts , which Columbia Records brought out in 1963, he received the Grammy as the most promising new classical music artist on the classical music scene ("... most promising new classical music artist ..."). 1976 his concert under the title was Live from the Lincoln Center by the television station PBS broadcast live. It became the first piano recital in American television history to be broadcast nationally in prime time, live, and in full length. In 1969, Watts played in the inauguration of President Richard Nixon . Since 2004 he has taught at Indiana University Bloomington.
Awards
- 1964: Grammy Award for the best new classical pianist
- 1988: Avery Fisher Prize
- 2012: National Medal of Arts
- 2017: Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
- 2020: Member of the American Philosophical Society
Web links
- André Watts at Allmusic (English)
swell
- ↑ a b biography of Indiana University. Retrieved February 20, 2019 .
- ^ Biography from Biographie.com
- ↑ 1963 Jan 12 / Young People's Concert / Bernstein , New York Philharmonic digital archive, accessed February 20, 2019
- ↑ 1963 Jan 31; Feb 01 / Subscription Season / Bernstein , New York Philharmonic digital archive, accessed February 20, 2019
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Watts, André |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American classical pianist and university professor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | June 20, 1946 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Nuremberg |