André Watts, one of the first American Black classical pianists to earn worldwide acclaim, has died at 77.
Born in Nürnberg, Germany, to a US serviceman and his Hungarian wife who eventually settled in Philadelphia, Watts was a musical prodigy who performed as a 9-year-old with the Philadelphia Orchestra. In 1963, Leonard Bernstein tapped the 16-year-old Watts to appear in a “Young People’s Concert” telecast with the New York Philharmonic; later that year, the young pianist substituted for Glenn Gould in a subscription concert with Bernstein and the philharmonic.
After graduating from the Philadelphia Musical Academy (now the University of the Arts), Watts studied with Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Institute in Baltimore, graduating in 1972. During his studies, Watts appeared with several US and British orchestras, and by the mid-’70s was performing extensively and recording for Columbia Masterworks (now Sony Classical). He later recorded for the EMI/Angel (now Warner Classics) and Telarc labels.
Since 2004, Watts had been a member of the faculty of the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University Bloomington.
An obituary from the Jacobs School:
http://music.indiana.edu/news-events/news/info/2023/07/andre-watts-passing.html
Letter V 