Among his generation of concert artists, Awadagin Pratt is acclaimed for his musical insight and intensely engaging performances in recital and with symphony orchestras.

Born in Pittsburgh, Pratt began studying piano at the age of six. Three years later, after moving with his family to Normal, he began studying violin as well. At 16, he entered the University of Illinois, where he studied piano, violin, and conducting. He subsequently enrolled at the Peabody Conservatory, becoming the first student in the school’s history to receive diplomas in three performance areas: piano, violin, and conducting.

In 1992, Pratt won the Naumburg International Piano Competition, and two years later he was awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant. Since then, he has presented numerous recitals throughout the United States, including performances at Lincoln Center, the Kennedy Center, the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Orchestra Hall in Chicago, and the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.

His many orchestral performances include appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, and the Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, Baltimore, Indianapolis, Atlanta, St. Louis, National, and Detroit symphonies, among many others. Summer festival engagements have included appearances at Ravinia, Blossom, Wolf Trap, Caramoor, Aspen, and the Hollywood Bowl.

An experienced conductor, Pratt became principal conductor of the Miami Valley Symphony Orchestra in the 2023–24 season. He has also conducted the Chamber Orchestra of Pittsburgh, the Georgian Philharmonic Orchestra, Bang on a Can at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Toledo Symphony, the Winston-Salem Symphony, and the New Mexico Philharmonic.

A favorite on college and university performing arts series and a strong advocate for music education, Pratt participates in numerous residency and outreach activities wherever he appears. He is also frequently invited to serve on international competition juries, including the Rubinstein International Piano Master Competition in Israel, the Cleveland International Piano Competition, the Minnesota e-Competition, the UNISA International Piano Competition in South Africa, and the Competition for Young Pianists in Memory of Vladimir Horowitz in Ukraine.

Pratt’s former students, among them Ning An at the Yong Siew Conservatory and Patrick Lechner at the Yehudi Menuhin School Qingdao, hold faculty positions at leading conservatories and schools of music. They are represented at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing, the Shanghai Conservatory, the Shenyang Conservatory, Seoul National University, Interlochen Arts Academy, and the College-Conservatory of Music (CCM).

Pratt’s recordings for Angel/EMI include A Long Way From Normal, an all-Beethoven sonata disc, Live From South Africa, Transformations, and an all-Bach recording with the St. Lawrence String Quartet. More recent releases include the Brahms Sonatas for Cello and Piano with Zuill Bailey for Telarc and a recording of music by Judith Lang Zaimont with the Harlem String Quartet.

Pratt is also the founder and Artistic Director of the Art of the Piano, producing an annual spring festival that features performances and conversations with distinguished pianists and faculty.

In response to the murder of George Floyd, Pratt created a podcast that evolved into a multimedia musical experience. Awadagin Pratt: Black in America, performed primarily on college campuses across the United States, fuses music by Bach, Messiaen, and Liszt with still and moving images by filmmaker Alrick Brown and narration in which Pratt chronicles his life — from his time as a student at the Peabody Conservatory through his ascent to international acclaim — including powerful accounts of numerous police stops and arrests he personally experienced.

In 2023, a documentary version directed by Michelle Bauer Carpenter was featured on PBS, screened at film festivals nationwide, and received multiple awards.

Through the Art of the Piano Foundation, inspired by a stanza from T. S. Eliot’s Four Quartets, Pratt has commissioned seven composers, Jessie Montgomery, Alvin Singleton, Judd Greenstein, Tyshawn Sorey, Jonathan Bailey Holland, Paola Prestini, and Pēteris Vasks, to compose works for piano and string orchestra or for piano, string orchestra, and Roomful of Teeth.

Singleton’s work premiered with the New World Symphony in April 2021, and Montgomery’s concerto was performed by a consortium of nine U.S. orchestras, including the St. Louis, Baltimore, Milwaukee, and Indianapolis symphonies, in spring 2022. An additional 13 orchestras programmed the piece with Pratt at the keyboard during the 2022–23 season, including Boston, Chicago, Atlanta, and the Minnesota Orchestra. All seven works were recorded with the chamber orchestra A Far Cry for New Amsterdam Records.