Pianist Awadagin Pratt To Perform Mozart's Piano Concert

Awadagin Pratt, hailed as “…an extravagant talent” by The Baltimore Sun, is the Artistic Director of the Next Generation Festival in Lancaster, Penn., and an Associate Professor of Piano and Artist in Residence at the College Conservatory of Music at the University of Cincinnati. Solo appearances include recitals at Lincoln Center, Kennedy Center, Dorothy Chandler Pavilion (Los Angeles) and Orchestra Hall (Chicago); orchestral performances with the New York Philharmonic, Orchestra of St. Luke's, Minnesota Orchestra and the Pittsburgh, St. Louis, National, Detroit and New Jersey symphonies; at Ravinia, Blossom, Wolftrap, Caramoor and Aspen festivals, and at the Hollywood Bowl and Mostly Mozart Festival (Tokyo).

He has been featured on National Public Radio's Performance Today, St. Paul Sunday Morning and Weekend Edition; the Today Show, Good Morning America, Sesame Street, CBS Sunday Morning and PBS's Live from The Kennedy Center – A Salute to Slava. Pratt won the Naumburg International Piano Competition (1992) and Avery Fisher Career Grant (1994). Born in Pittsburgh, Pratt studied at the University of Illinois and the Peabody Conservatory of Music, where he became the first student in the school's history to receive diplomas in three performance areas: piano, violin and conducting.

Now in his sixth season as Music Director of the Manchester Camerata, Douglas Boyd continues to transform this orchestra into one of England’s finest. Boyd also begins his fourth season as Artistic Partner of the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, with whom he performs, records and tours regularly. After triumphant performances at the 2006 Mostly Mozart Festival, the Barbican in London, and Lincoln Center in New York, Boyd spent several weeks leading the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra throughout the 2006–2007 season, including performances at the Ojai Festival in California, and made conducting debuts with the Colorado, Pacific and Toronto symphonies. Additionally, Boyd serves as Principal Guest Conductor of the City of London Sinfonia, with whom he toured China, and as an Artistic Director of the Gardner Chamber Orchestra in Boston. Born in Scotland, Boyd was a founding member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and served until 2002 as its Principal Oboist.

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Overture to his ballet The Creatures of Prometheus opens with a solemn and portentous Adagio followed by a vivacious Allegro molto con brio. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart composed more than two-dozen piano concertos, of which No. 23 in A major, K. 488, is among the most-performed. A cornucopia of memorable tunes in the opening and closing movements, this work includes one of his most personal and affecting slow movements, thereby securing its place in the vast piano concerto repertoire.

Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture bristles with vehement energy—its compelling opening measures use silence to heighten tension. Franz Schubert composed his Symphony No. 2 during his teen years, yet this enchanting music shows a mastery of Classical style and signs of nascent Romanticism. Even at so early an age, Schubert’s unparalleled lyricism is irresistible. -- www.seattlesymphony.org