Madison Vision Series presents “Awadagin Pratt — Black in America”
JMU News
SUMMARY: In this one-hour presentation, the internationally renowned pianist will chronicle his life, from his time as a music student at Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory, through his ascent to worldwide acclaim, through graphic accounts of police stops for “Driving While Black.” He will also perform with JMU School of Music faculty members and students.
Madison Vision Series
Awadagin Pratt – Black in America
Tuesday, Feb. 21, 6 p.m.
Forbes Center for the Performing Arts
Concert Hall
Free and open to the public
“Art is not what you see, but what you make others see.” – Edward Degas
Awadagin Pratt – Black in America is a one-hour presentation by the internationally renowned pianist that chronicles his life, from his time as a music student at Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory, through his ascent to worldwide acclaim, through graphic accounts of police stops for “Driving While Black.”
Pratt’s narrative, the program’s centerpiece, focuses on the impacts and contexts of his repeated experience of being stopped by police for no apparent reason. This searing autobiographical story also includes Alrick Brown’s short film presentation “Histoire(s) des Noire,” a kaleidoscopic collage of more than 150 images that confront African-American representation in visual media across more than a century, and music performances by Pratt with JMU School of Music faculty members and students.
*Note: Some of the film’s imagery can be disturbing for audience members.
The live music performances will include Bach’s Keyboard Concerto in A Major, BWV 1055, and Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time, movement VIII.
After the presentation, Pratt will be joined by President Jonathan Alger for a question-and-answer session.
###
Awadagin Pratt was the first student in the history of Peabody Conservatory of Music to receive diplomas in three performance areas — piano, violin and conducting. In 1992, Pratt won the Naumburg International Piano Competition and in 1994 was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Since then, he has played numerous recitals throughout the U.S., including performances at Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, and Chicago’s Orchestra Hall. His many orchestral performances include appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra and the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Atlanta, St. Louis, National, Detroit and New Jersey symphonies, among many others. Internationally, Pratt has performed in Japan, Germany, Italy, Brazil, Switzerland, Poland, Israel, South Korea, Colombia and South Africa. Pratt is professor of piano and Artist in Residence at the CCM at the University of Cincinnati and is currently president and artistic director of the Art of the Piano Foundation in Cincinnati. He has received the Distinguished Alumni Award from Johns Hopkins University as well as honorary doctorates from Illinois Wesleyan University and Susquehanna University. He has delivered commencement addresses at those institutions as well as at Peabody Conservatory.
The Madison Vision Series honors James Madison’s conviction that cultivating an informed and educated citizenry is essential to the health of our republican democracy. The series brings scholars, thinkers and leaders of all kinds to campus for lively explorations of issues facing our society.
