Born in Nuremberg, Allied-occupied Germany, Watts was the son of a Hungarian mother, Maria Alexandra Gusmits, a pianist; and an American father, Herman Watts, a U.S. Army non-commissioned officer. André spent his early childhood in Europe, living mostly near army posts where his father was stationed.[5]
Watts began to study the violin when he was four. By six he decided the piano was his instrument.[6] When André was eight years old, Herman's military assignment brought the family to the United States. They settled in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[6] His mother started him with his first piano lessons. As do many children, Watts disliked practicing.[7] For encouragement, his mother would tell stories of the great pianist and composer Franz Liszt, making it clear that Liszt practiced faithfully. Watts found inspiration in Liszt, adopting his theatrical playing style.
After the divorce of his parents in 1959, Watts remained with his mother,[9] who supported them by working as a secretary and later as a receptionist.
Watts enrolled at the Philadelphia Musical Academy (now a part of the University of the Arts), where he studied with Genia Robinor, Doris Bawden, and Clement Petrillo, graduating in June 1963. He entered his first competition at nine, with forty other children, for the opportunity to perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra Children's Concerts. Watts won the competition playing the first movement of Joseph Haydn's Piano Concerto in D.[9][10]
Career
At sixteen, Watts auditioned at Carnegie Recital Hall in a competition to play in conductor Leonard Bernstein's televised Young People's Concert series with the New York Philharmonic.[7] Watts' performance of the Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat at a Young People's Concert on January 12, 1963, was videotaped and nationally televised on CBS on January 15, 1963.[11][12] Before the concert, Bernstein introduced Watts to the national television audience, stating that he "flipped" when he first heard Watts play.[9]
On January 31, 1963, Bernstein asked the 16-year-old Watts to fill in for the ailing Glenn Gould, the scheduled soloist for the New York Philharmonic's regular subscription concert. Watts again played the Liszt E-flat Concerto. At its conclusion, the orchestra joined the audience in a thundrous standing ovation.[9] Watts' first LP, The Exciting Debut of André Watts, was shortly thereafter released on Columbia Masterworks records and included the Liszt Concerto with Bernstein and the Philharmonic.[5]
By 1969, he was on a full-scale concert schedule, booked three years in advance. Watts made his Boston debut in 1969 for the Peabody Mason Concert series.[14] He graduated from the Peabody Institute in 1972. He signed a long-term exclusive contract with Columbia Masterworks Records on his 21st birthday.[15] The contract ended in 1977.[16]
By the mid-1970s, Watts was giving 150 concerts, recitals, and chamber performances per season, performing about eight months out of the year. In 1976, at age thirty, he celebrated his tenth consecutive appearance in the Lincoln Center Great Performers Series at Avery Fisher Hall. The PBS Sunday afternoon telecast was the first solo recital presented on Live from Lincoln Center and the first full-length recital to be aired nationally in prime time.[20]
In 1985, he signed a recording contract with EMI, with whom he recorded until the early 1990s. He also recorded for Telarc.[21]
In November 2002, Watts suffered a subdural hematoma and underwent emergency surgery.[22] In 2004, he also had surgery for a ruptured disc which was affecting the use of his left hand. He continued performing regularly after recovering from the aforementioned surgeries.[23]
In 2004, Watts joined the faculty at Indiana University, where he held the Jack I. and Dora B. Hamlin Endowed Chair in Music.[24][25]
In 2019, Watts underwent surgery for a nerve injury to his left hand resulting in the cancellation of several performances.[26] He reworked the Ravel Concerto for Left Hand to perform with his right hand and was planning to perform the work with the Detroit and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras. Ultimately, however, he was unable to perform the concerto due to the pandemic and continuing health issues.[6]
Personal life and death
Watts was married to Joan Brand, and had two stepchildren, as well as seven step-grandchildren.[6] He was diagnosed with prostate cancer in July 2016,[6] and died of the disease at home in Bloomington, Indiana, on July 12, 2023, at age 77.[10]
