Pianist

Through his kaleidoscopic career as a pianist, conductor, educator, and curator of
memorable musical moments, Awadagin Pratt shines a light on 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 winning the Naumburg International Piano Competition in 1992 and receiving a 1994 Avery Fisher Career Grant, Pratt has received acclaim for delivering “forceful, imaginative, and precisely tinted” performances (The Washington Post) and been 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): He has performed with the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the New York Philharmonic, and many others; in solo recitals at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center; and in chamber music collaborations with cellist Zuill Bailey, pianist Simone Dinnerstein, and the Harlem and St. Lawrence String Quartets. His 2023 recording, Stillpoint, explores the truth and beauty in T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets through new works by Tyshawn Sorey, Paola Prestini, Peteris Vasks, Jessie Montgomery, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Alvin Singleton, and Judd Greenstein.

He became principal conductor of the Miami Valley Symphony Orchestra in the 2023/24 season, and he has conducted the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh, Georgia Symphony Orchestra (Tbilisi), and Bang on a Can at the Brooklyn Academy of-Music. He made his operatic debut leading Porgy and Bess with the Greensboro Opera (North Carolina).

In response to the murder of George Floyd, Pratt created a podcast that evolved into a multimedia musical experience. Performed primarily on college campuses across the U.S., Awadagin Pratt: Black in America, fuses music of Bach, Messiaen, and Liszt with still and moving pictures by filmmaker Alrick Brown and narration in which Pratt chronicles his life – from his time as a music student at the Peabody Conservatory through his ascent to international acclaim – through graphic accounts of numerous police stops and arrests he experienced for Driving While Black. In 2023, a documentary version, directed by Michelle Bauer Carpenter, was screened at film festivals nationwide.

Pratt’s commitment to the next generation of pianists is evidenced by his work as
founding director of the Next Generation Festival, the Art of the Piano Foundation, and
the Nina Simone Piano Competition, a new biennial competition that celebrates
diversity in classical music.
He served as professor and artist in residence at the University of Cincinnati College-
Conservatory of Music for two decades and is now professor of piano at the San
Francisco Conservatory of Music.