The University of Evansville’s Patricia H. Snyder Concert and Lecture Series will present world renowned pianist André Watts in concert on Tuesday, April 30, at 7:30 p.m., at the Victory Theatre in downtown Evansville. Watts will also be conducting a masterclass on Monday, April 29, from 1:00-4:00 p.m. in Wheeler Concert Hall on UE’s campus. Both events are free and open to the public.
Register for the event on the UE website.
Watts was only 16 when Leonard Bernstein chose him to make his debut with the New York Philharmonic in one of the orchestra’s Young People’s Concerts. It was broadcast nationwide. Two weeks later, Bernstein asked Watts to substitute for the ailing Glenn Gould in performances of Liszt’s E-flat Concerto with the New York Philharmonic. More than half a century later, Watts remains one of America’s most distinguished and celebrated performing artists.
Watts is a regular guest at major summer music festivals, and has appeared with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, and the St. Louis, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Dallas, Indianapolis, and Nashville symphonies, among others. International engagements have included concerto and recital appearances in Japan, Hong Kong, Germany, and Spain. Watts has appeared on programs produced by PBS, the BBC and the Arts and Entertainment Network. His 1976 New York recital for Live from Lincoln Center was the first full length recital broadcast in the history of television. His performance at the 38th Casals Festival in Puerto Rico was nominated for an Emmy Award in the category of Outstanding Individual Achievement in Cultural Programming.
Watts’s extensive discography includes recordings of works by Gershwin, Chopin, Liszt and Tchaikovsky; recital CD’s of works by Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt and Chopin; and recordings featuring the concertos of Liszt, MacDowell, Tchaikovsky, and Saint-Saens. He is included in the Great Pianists of the 20th Century series for Philips. In 2016, SONY Classical released André Watts – The Complete Columbia Album Collection.
Watts received a 2011 National Medal of Arts, given by the President of the United States to individuals who are deserving of special recognition for their outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support and availability of the arts in the United States. In June 2006, he was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl of Fame to celebrate the 50th anniversary of his debut. He is the recipient of the 1988 Avery Fisher Prize.
At age 26, Watts was the youngest person ever to receive an Honorary Doctorate from Yale University and has since received numerous honors from highly respected schools including the University of Pennsylvania, Brandeis University, The Juilliard School of Music and his alma mater, the Peabody Conservatory of Johns Hopkins University. Watts was appointed to the Jack I. and Dora B. Hamlin Endowed Chair in Music at the Jacobs School of Music at Indiana University in 2004 and in 2017 was named a Distinguished Professor, the highest academic rank the university bestows upon its faculty.
The Patricia H. Snyder Concert and Lecture Series was made possible in 1997 through an endowment from the late Patricia H. Snyder, trustee and longtime friend of University, to bring speakers or performers of renown to Evansville at no cost to the public.
