André Watts: Dazzling Performer, Devoted Musical Mentor

André Watts, distinguished professor of piano at the Jacobs School of Music, died July 12, 2023.

Born June 20, 1946, Watts was just 16 when Maestro Leonard Bernstein invited him to step in for the brilliant pianist Glenn Gould, who had cancelled an appearance with the New York Philharmonic on short notice. Subbing for Gould with Bernstein at the podium would seem a daunting ordeal for a teenage pianist, but not for Watts, who thrived in front of live audiences. He had already played his fiery rendition of Liszt’s Piano Concerto No. 1 on national television just two weeks earlier, performing in one of Bernstein’s Young People’s Concerts. When Watts won a Grammy for Most Promising New Classical Recording Artist one year later, he had not yet begun his studies at the Peabody Institute.

The spark of good fortune Bernstein had ignited made Watts feel as if he had been handed a career “out of thin air.” But he proved his extraordinary talent each time he sat down at a piano. Watts was a master technician who also played with complex emotion, a combination that kept him on concert stages with the world’s best orchestras for more than 60 years. Along the way, Watts’s artistry opened doors for Black and brown musicians in the white and privileged world of classical music.

Watts received innumerable honors, including the Avery Fisher Prize in 1988 and the National Medal of Arts from President Barack Obama in 2011. He performed at President Richard Nixon’s inauguration ceremony in 1969 and talked to children about the value of learning from mistakes on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood in 1987.

Watts, who joined the IU faculty in 2004, held the Jack I. and Dora B. Hamlin Endowed Chair in Music. Teaching and mentoring new generations of classical musicians was a role he relished for many years.

“André Watts was a treasured and beloved musician, teacher, colleague, and friend to so very many,” said Abra Bush, dean of the Jacobs School. “His graceful, elegant presence at the Jacobs School of Music will be deeply missed.”

Watch Watts’s Young People’s Concert performance.