Among the “next generation” of concert artists, Awadagin (ah-wah-DAH-jin) Pratt is already a superstar. As a student he triple-majored in piano, violin, and conducting at the Peabody Conservatory and became the first student to graduate with three degrees. An internationally known classical musician, Pratt challenges the classical music establishment and fans alike and forces them to rethink the way the music is perceived and heard. The first thing you notice when Pratt appears onstage is his dreadlocks. Now part of his personal signature, the dreadlocks go back to his student days in 1988. “For a long time, since I was a kid, I wanted to do something with my hair,” Pratt said, “I’d let it grow but it never really got long. It would just get sort of dense. But I was into Yannick Noah, the French tennis player, then and I decided, hey, that would look good on me.”

Pratt’s music defies tradition. He refuses to give the standard treatment to musical pieces so that audiences often feel that they are hearing a well-known piece, for the first time. He believes that no two musicians should play a piece in the same way. “If one does completely play, internalize the music and come to terms with it, without concern for how it will be perceived, it’s bound to sound different. I want to leave an audience with a sense of what these pieces of music are all about, why the composers were so moved, they had to write it down on paper,” says Pratt.

Recent Harrisburg Arts Awardee and music lover Charles Peguese describes Pratt’s artistic style and lack of musical affectation in this way. Pratt is “like a medium who really transports you into the music. One almost forgets he (Pratt) is there. He becomes just the instrument, the medium to get you involved in the music. It is an incredible experience. You really must see and hear Awadagin perform.”

He is willing to take risks so that his audience will feel, think, and respond. The resulting music is intense and at once sensual as well as intellectual. Naumburg juror and professor of piano at the Juilliard School, Joseph Bloch describes the sound of Pratt’s octaves in Liszt’s “Funérailles”, “It’s like an airliner taking off … His playing is so fresh, so alive, and he can really make a piece go wild,” Bloch says. “And he’s such an unusual kid. He looks a little frightening — with his black shirt, his black pants, and that glowering, handsome face — but he’s so gentle and sweet. I’m completely sold on him and so will audiences be when they get to hear him. His career will be fascinating to follow.”

When he won the prestigious Naumburg Competition in New York in 1992 at the age of 26, Pratt became the first African-American classical instrumentalist to win first prize in this international competition. His victory in the Naumburg brought him another new experience — financial security. He received a check from the Naumburg Foundation for $5,000 but he had no bank account to cash it. “I went from poor to middle-class overnight,” jokes Pratt, who declared his financial independence from his parents when he was 18. “Awadagin won the Naumburg because he’s so talented,” says Lucy Mann, the foundation’s director. “But the publicity and opportunities that followed happened because there was a big hole waiting for someone like him — a young black person with an extravagant talent.”

“This young man convinces you he has the right stuff to become a true artist,” says Robert Mann, founder and first violinist of the Juilliard String Quartet and another Naumburg juror. “His playing is spectacularly involving. Everybody just goes berserk over it — not just the way he plays the surface things, but the degree of musical involvement he brings to it.”

“His best playing was some of the most spectacular I’ve ever heard,” explains Ursula Oppens, a well-known pianist who was also a juror at the Naumburg. “If he keeps developing, he’ll be one of the most exciting pianists in the world.”

Pratt has a special love for chamber music which he believes provides a balance to his work. He calls it “fun.” Although he doesn’t play nearly as much as he once did, he is now altering his mix of concerts to include more of it. “I really missed playing chamber music for a long time when I was just playing solo recitals and concertos. When I was in school, there were many years when I was probably doing more chamber music than I was doing anything else,” he says. He often accompanied instrumentalists and singers while an undergraduate at the University of Illinois and later at Peabody.

Pratt enjoys the interaction with fellow musicians as much as the chamber music itself. In a solo recital, he explains, he strives to communicate with the audience but he is not always aware of how well he is succeeding. In chamber music, however, the communication between players is what makes it work, so a certain level of feedback is instantaneous.

Pratt’s other favorite instrument is the violin. “The violin gives you more direct contact with the process of making sound and more control of the sound being made,” Pratt says, “With the piano, you can play harmony and counterpoint more effectively, and of course you can make a bigger noise, but I miss playing chamber music on the violin … I haven’t given it up entirely.” Pratt hopes to eventually give concerts, both chamber and solo, where he will be playing the violin.

Except for the pianist Andre Watts, Pratt is the only African-American instrumental soloist of international stature and is certain to become the second black classical superstar. But, Pratt says, “I don’t think of myself as a pioneer - Andre Watts was that.” The attention paid to his color “comes with the territory,” he says, “in any endeavor where there are not a lot of black people who are successful. I think it’s important for young black musicians to see a lot of us out there playing concerts — to show them there are more possibilities for themselves than they may have thought,” he says. “My success, if you want to call it that, has proved (these musicians) can go through the ‘system’ without doing everything by the book and, despite that, still reach a certain plateau.”

When performing for children, Pratt strives to demystify classical music and to show them that professional sports are not the only path to fame. “The recitals are a lot of fun. I usually play movements of pieces and then talk a little about the pieces and composers.” June Lockett, principal at Newark, New Jersey’s George Washington Carver Elementary, says role models such as Pratt are just what children need. “Obviously the man is immensely talented, but what struck me the most was how accommodating he was. After his performance, our sixth and seventh graders got the chance to interview him. He’s so down to earth and friendly, and because he’s so young and dresses the way he does, the children could really relate to him. They hung onto his every word. He definitely created a few classical music fans that day.”

Performing with Pratt during the Next Generation Festival will be:
• Marcelo Jaffe from Brazil, violist and soloist with the San Paulo String Quartet and the San Paulo Jazz Symphony Orchestra, and professor of viola at the University of San Paulo;
•Amadi Hummings, violist and soloist with the Concertante Chamber Ensemble, conductor of the Old Dominion University Orchestra, and Assistant Professor of Music at Old Dominion University;
• Derek Reeves, violinist with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the Gateways Music Festival Chamber Ensemble;
• Owen Young, cellist and soloist with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and teacher at several conservatories and programs in New England;
• Nicole Bayer, cellist with the Bayer Trio and winner of the 1995 Musical Merit Foundation Competition.

Performances will include Johann Sebastian Bach’s Sonata #2 for Piano and Viola da Gamba, Johannes Brahms’ String Quartet in G, and contemporary composer Giya Kancheli’s Piano Quartet in L’istesso Tempo. For the Brahms, Pratt will demonstrate his exceptional musical talents by playing his second instrument of choice, the violin.

The free concerts will be held on June 8th at the Rose Lehrman Arts Center, Harrisburg Area Community College; June 9th and 10th at the Zimmerman Recital Hall of the Suzanne H. Arnold Gallery, Lebanon Valley College, Annville; June 14th at the MAC Recital Hall, York College of Pennsylvania, York (sponsored by York Federal), and June 15th and 16th at the Miller Recital Hall, Franklin & Marshall College, Lancaster. All concerts begin at 7:30 PM.

A chamber music master class will be taught by Awadagin Pratt and his colleagues on June 16th at 1 PM at the Lyte Auditorium at Alumni Hall, Millersville University, Millersville. A children’s concert will be held on June 11th at 1 PM at the YWCA of Greater Harrisburg.

Wednesday, June 9, 7:30pm
Zimmerman Recital Hall
Suzanne H. Arnold Gallery,
Lebanon Valley College
Annville, PA

Thursday, June 10, 7:30pm
Zimmerman Recital Hall
Suzanne H. Arnold Gallery, Lebanon Valley College
Annville, PA

Friday, June 11, 1pm
Children’s Concert,
YWCA of Greater Harrisburg
Harrisburg, PA

Monday, June 14, 7:30pm
MAC Recital Hall,
York College of Pennsylvania
York, PA

Tuesday, June 15, 7:30pm
Miller Recital Hall,
Franklin and Marshall College
Lancaster, PA

Wednesday, June 16, 1pm
Chamber Music Master Class,
Lyte Auditorium Alumni Hall,
Millersville University
Millersville, PA