André Watts
The young Watts with Leonard Bernstein on album cover.
March 15, 2018
György Lázár
As part of our series on lesser known Hungarian Americans we
introduce an American superstar, concert pianist André Watts. We feel
that this piece is timely since the Orbán government is supporting
“ethnic homogeneity” and envisions a white Christian Hungary defending
Europe from the “hordes” of Africa and the Middle-East.
André Watts is a living legend, a musical virtuoso and the first black concert pianist to achieve international super stardom.
Watts was born in 1946 in Nuremberg, Germany. The son of an African
American soldier, Herman Watts, and a Hungarian refugee mother, Maria
Alexandra Gusmits. Watts lived in Europe until the age of eight when his
father was reassigned to the US and the family settled in Philadelphia.
His parents divorced in 1962 and Watts lived with his Hungarian
American mother.
Watts started with the violin at age four and switched to piano at
age six. His first teacher was his mother. Since her boy hated to
practice she started to tell him stories about the great Hungarian
pianist Ferenc Liszt, pointing out how he practiced faithfully. Watts
had a lifelong admiration of Liszt and even adopted Liszt’s bravura
playing style. The child protégé won his first piano competition at age
nine in Philadelphia and got a big break at the Young People’s Concert
that was broadcast on CBS on January 15, 1963. Leonard Bernstein
introduced the wunderkind to the American audience.
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