Awadagin Pratt in Recital

Sneak Peek …read more

“He may well be the closest thing to Franz Liszt as we are going to get in our lifetime. He leaves you slack-jawed in wonder.” ~ Nancy Chen

The son of two professors, Awadagin began musical studies at age 6, but in his teens, tennis was his passion. (His dreads and his game are Yannick Noah-like). Happily for Arizona Musicfest, he turned down his tennis scholarship and became the first student at Peabody Conservatory to earn certificates in piano, violin, and conducting.

Everything Awadagin Pratt does is Tour de Force, including winning numerous performance prizes, soloing worldwide, and creating the program for this concert:

• Beethoven (Sonata in A-flat Major and Fur Elise)
• Haydn (Piano Sonata in B-flat)
• Franck (Prelude, Fugue and Variation)
• Liszt (Sonata in B Minor)

Chris Warsaw describes this concert very aptly when she says: “It’s The Greats, played by a great!”

Preview a selection by Awadagin Pratt below, Beethoven’s Allegro molto.

Guest Artist Bio

Premium Seating available in the orange areas of the seating chart below.

Piano Tour de Force: Awadagin Pratt
The bright two movement Haydn Piano Sonata in B Flat Major, opens Awadagin Pratt’s concert. It is a delightful display of pianistic, light and staccato technique. Did you know that many of Haydn’s sonatas were composed to serve as teaching materials for his piano students, rather than for concert hall performance? We are indeed fortunate to hear this sonata performed at Pinnacle Peak Church where the crisp and delicate passages of the work will be delightfully transmitted to our ears in this acoustically wonderful venue.

The excitement generated by Franz Liszt’s pryotechnic piano works is known world-wide. It follows that the combination of Mr. Awadagin Pratt’s brilliant piano technique and the electrical force of one of the most difficult and challenging pieces for piano of all time, Liszt’s Prelude, Fugue and Variation will be overwhelming. You know the good old saying, “It will knock your socks off!”