André Watts was born in Nuremberg, Germany.  His mother was Hungarian and his father an American officer.  His young years were spent in Europe near the bases where his father was stationed, but when he was 8, his father was re-assigned to the US and the family settled in Philadelphia, Pa. Having already become conversant on the piano thanks to his mother’s teaching, he was enrolled at the Philadelphia Musical Academy, now part of The University of the Arts. In 1963, immediately after winning the competition to perform at the Carnegie Recital Hall for Leonard Bernstein’s televised Young People’s Concerts, the conductor asked the young Watts to step in for an ailing Glenn Gould for the regular subscription concert. When he completed his performance of Liszt’s E-flat Concerto, both the audience and the orchestra gave him a standing ovation. Maestro Watts holds the Jack I. and Dora B. Hamlin Endowed Chair in Music at Indiana University’s Jacob School of Music.  He is admired by audiences and musicians alike and is universally considered one of the world’s greatest pianists.  He was reluctant to contribute to this project arguing that he makes very few annotations. Yet, his hand is, indeed, delicately visible on the page.

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Anne Akiko Meyers
Victoria Bond
Giuliano Carmignola
George Crumb
Misha Dichter
Simone Dinnerstein
Stanley Drucker
JoAnne Falletta
Renée Fleming
Richard Goode
Sean Hickey
Benjamin Hochman
Yo Yo Ma
Anne-Sophie Mutter
Itzhak Perlman
Eve Queler
Philippe Quint
Gerard Schwarz
Peter Serkin
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Benita Valente
André Watts