Andre Watts

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André Watts (born June 20, 1946) is a classical pianist and lecture at Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music.

Life and early performances

Watts is the son of a Hungarian mother, Maria Alexandra Gusmits, a pianist, and an American father, Herman Watts, a US Army non-commissioned officer born in Nuremberg, Germany. André spent his childhood in Europe, living mainly near army posts where his father was stationed.

When he was four years old, he began studying the violin. He decided that the piano was his instrument by six years old. Herman's military service took the family to the United States when André was eight years old. They landed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His mother started him with piano lessons for the first time. Watts abhorred exercising, as do many children. For inspiration, his mother would tell stories of Franz Liszt, the great pianist and composer, implying that Liszt faithfully followed him. Watts took inspiration from Liszt's theatrical playing style. Watts stayed with his mother, who helped them by serving as a secretary and later as a receptionist after his parents' divorce in 1962.

Watts attended the Philadelphia Musical Academy (now part of the University of the Arts), where he studied with Genia Robinor, Doris Bawden, and Clement Petrillo, who graduated in June 1963. He entered his first competition at nine, with forty other children, for the opportunity to perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra Children's Concerts. Watts took the grand prize for his performance in a Joseph Haydn concerto.

Watts performed Mendelsohn's G minor concerto with the Robin Hood Dell Orchestra at age ten and Franck's Symphonic Variations at fourteen, again with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He auditioned at Carnegie Recital Hall in a competition to participate in conductor Leonard Bernstein's televised Young People's Concert series with the New York Philharmonic at sixteen.

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Career

Watts' appearance in the Liszt Piano Concerto No. No. 1 was a success. On January 12, 1963, one in an E-flat at a Young People's Concert was videotaped and nationally broadcast on CBS. Bernstein introduced Watts to the national television audience before the show, claiming that he "flipped" when he first heard Watts play.

Bernstein ordered Watts to cover for the ailing Glenn Gould, the scheduled soloist for the New York Philharmonic's regular subscription concert on January 31, 1963. Watts performed the Liszt E-flat Concerto for the second time. The whole orchestra erupted in applause as he reached his final cadenza. The Exciting Debut of André Watts, Watts' first album, was released on Columbia Masterworks shortly after, including the Liszt Concerto with Bernstein and the Philharmonic.

Following graduation, Watts enrolled at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, where he studied part-time for a Bachelor of Music degree with pianist Leon Fleisher. He appeared at Lewisohn Stadium in New York City with conductor Seiji Ozawa, and the New York Philharmonic, as well as the New York Philharmonic, performing Camille Saint-Saulns' Concerto No. 0. In a G minor, there are two. He appeared at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles in September 1963. He began the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., in 1964–65, and the Saint-Sans concerto was held again. He returned to New York in January 1965 to appear in Chopin's Concerto No. n. 2 in F minor. Watts made his European debut with the London Symphony Orchestra in June 1966 in London.

He was on a full-scale concert schedule three years in advance and appeared three years ahead of schedule. Watts made his Boston debut with the Peabody Mason Concert series in 1969. In 1972, he graduated from the Peabody Institute.

Watts was selected as Musical America's Musician of the Month in February 1973. Doctor honoris causa from Albright College and Yale University, the Order of Zaire from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, and the National Medal of Arts are among the many honors and awards.

Watts was giving 150 concerts, recitals, and chamber performances per season by the mid-1970s, with a total of 68 months out of the year. He appeared in the Lincoln Center Great Performers Series for the tenth time in 1976, at the age of thirty. The PBS televised recital on Sunday afternoon was the first solo recital to be broadcast nationally on prime time, with the first full recital being broadcast nationally on PBS.

Watts had a subdural hematoma and underwent emergency surgery in November 2002. He had surgery for a ruptured disc in 2004, which was also impacting the use of his left hand. Since recovering from the surgeries, he resumed regular activities.

Watts joined the faculty at Indiana University in 2004, where he holds the Jack I. and Dora B. Hamlin Endowed Chair in Music.

In 2019, he underwent surgery for a nerve injury to his left hand, which resulted in the cancellation of several performances. He has reworked the Ravel Concerto for Left Hand to perform with his right hand and will be playing with the Detroit and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras.

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Awards and recognitions

• 1964 Most Promising New Classical Recording Artist
• 1973 Honorary Doctorate, Yale University
• 1975 Honorary Doctorate, Albright College
• 1984 Distinguished Alumni Award, Peabody Institute of Johns Hopkins University
• 1988 Avery Fisher Prize
• 1988 University Of The Arts Medal, Philadelphia
• 2011 National Medal of Arts
• 2013 American Classical Music Hall of Fame
• 2014 Cincinnati MacDowell Society's MacDowell Medal
• 2020 Elected to the American Philosophical Society
• 2021 Honorary Doctorate, Boston Conservatory at Berklee