Pianist Pratt to make Coastal Concerts debut Feb. 7
The acclaimed pianist Awadagin Pratt will perform in Lewes at 2 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 7, in place of Ingrid Fliter, who has been forced to cancel because of an urgent family matter. It will be his only mid-Atlantic engagement this season.
A Naumburg International Piano Competition winner and recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant, Pratt has performed at such noted venues as Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles and Chicago’s Orchestra Hall.
The multitalented Pittsburgh native was the first student in the history of the Peabody Conservatory of Music to receive diplomas in three performance areas: piano, violin and conducting. He has appeared with America’s premier orchestras and at some of the country’s most prominent summer festivals. His concert tours have also taken him to Japan, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, Poland, Israel, Columbia and South Africa.
A veteran of high-level concert appearances at the White House, Pratt can also count among his many credits an especially memorable visit to “Sesame Street” as well as appearances on “Good Morning America” and the “Today" show.
The virtuoso recitalist, who is also a conductor and arranger, is professor of piano and chairman of the Piano Department at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music. He is the artistic director of both the World Piano Competition held in Cincinnati and the Art of Piano Festival at CCM.
For his Coastal Concerts debut, Pratt will offer several pieces by Bach, the familiar “Variations on a Theme by Handel,” Op. 24, by Brahms, and the Liszt Piano Sonata in B Minor, considered by many to be Liszt’s finest composition and one of the most technically demanding in the piano repertoire.
The concert will take place at wheelchair-accessible Bethel United Methodist Church Hall, Fourth and Market streets, Lewes. Tickets are $30. Ages 10-18, as well as one adult per youth, are admitted free with advance reservations; call 888-212-6458. Admission for $10 is available to students 19 years and older with a valid school ID.
For online tickets and more information, go to coastalconcerts.org. Tickets may also be purchased at the door on the afternoon of the performance (all forms of payment accepted) or in advance (cash only) at the Lewes Chamber of Commerce or Teller Wines, 1201 Savannah Road.
Coastal Concerts is a nonprofit organization promoting classical music appreciation in central Delmarva. This program is made possible, in part, by a grant from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
