92NY presents Awadagin Pratt, piano

The 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY), one of New York’s leading cultural venues, presents Awadagin Pratt, piano on Sunday, May 18, 2025 at 2pm ET at Geffen Stage at Kaufmann Concert Hall. Tickets start at $40 for in person and are available at https://www.92ny.org/event/awadagin-pratt.

Winner of the coveted Naumburg International Piano Competition and an Avery Fisher Career Grant early in his stellar career, pianist Awadagin Pratt brings his powerhouse talent and deep musical insight to this rare New York City recital. His program showcases the grand, sweeping, Romantic playing that is his signature, with works by Brahms, Franck, and more.

Program:

JOHANNES BRAHMS Four Ballades, Op.10

CÉSAR FRANCK Prélude, Chorale, and Fugue, FWV 21

FRANÇOIS COUPERIN Selections from Pièces de clavecin, Sixième ordre

BRAHMS Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Handel, Op. 24

Through his kaleidoscopic career as a pianist, conductor, educator, and curator of memorable musical moments, Awadagin Pratt is actively inventing the artistic world he longs to live in — a world that shines light on rich 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 launching onto the international stage after winning the prestigious 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 (Washington Post) and is 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). His breakneck concert schedule has taken him across six continents for performances with the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras, the New York Philharmonic, and many others; solo recitals at the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, and Lincoln Center; and chamber music collaborations with Zuill Bailey, 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 newly composed works by Tyshawn Sorey, Paola Prestini, Pēteris Vasks, Jessie Montgomery, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Alvin Singleton, and Judd Greenstein. 

Pratt became principal conductor of the Miami Valley Symphony Orchestra in the 2023/24 season and has conducted the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh, Georgia Symphony Orchestra (Tbilisiand) 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 the music of Bach, Messaien, 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 film version of Awadagin Pratt: Black in America 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 has adjudicated the Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition, Cleveland International Piano Competition, Minnesota e-Competition, Unisa International Piano Competition, and the International Competition for Young Pianists created in memory of Vladimir Horowitz. 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. He remains the only graduate of the Peabody Institute to earn performance certificates in three areas — violin, piano, and conducting — and has received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Johns Hopkins University and honorary doctorates from Illinois Wesleyan University, Susquehanna University, and the Boston Conservatory. https://awadagin.com/

About The 92nd Street Y, New York: The 92nd Street Y, New York (92NY) is a world-class center for the arts and innovation, a convener of ideas, and an incubator for creativity. 92NY offers extensive classes, courses and events online including live concerts, talks and master classes; fitness classes for all ages; 250+ art classes, and parenting workshops for new moms and dads. The 92nd Street Y, New York is transforming the way people share ideas and translate them into action all over the world. All of 92NY's programming is built on a foundation of Jewish values, including the capacity of civil dialogue to change minds; the potential of education and the arts to change lives; and a commitment to welcoming and serving people of all ages, races, religions, and ethnicities. For more information, visit www.92NY.org.