Pianist André Watts, age 16, in rehearsal with the New York Philharmonic for one in all Leonard Bernstein’s Younger Folks’s Concert events.

CBS Photograph Archive/Getty Pictures

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CBS Photograph Archive/Getty Pictures

Pianist André Watts, age 16, in rehearsal with the New York Philharmonic for one in all Leonard Bernstein’s Younger Folks’s Concert events.

CBS Photograph Archive/Getty Pictures

At age 7, I am nonetheless so little that I’ve to tuck my legs beneath me to make myself taller in my seat. I would like a transparent view of the stage as a result of André Watts, my favourite pianist, is about to make his entrance. He passes by way of San Francisco yearly, and my mom all the time takes my sisters and me to his live shows. We’re all dressed up, three women in matching clothes with white tights and Mary Janes, so excited to be right here this night. The stage door opens and he strolls out confidently, elegant in his tux and utterly at residence within the highlight. He sits on the piano and my sisters and I lean in, enthralled by this dazzling younger man who seems like he may very well be associated to us, little brown women who by no means see anybody who seems like us up on that massive stage.

Watts died final week of prostate most cancers at age 77. He was a legend, from the star-is-born launch of his profession in 1963 when Leonard Bernstein introduced him at age 16 with the New York Philharmonic to his lengthy presence as some of the beloved American artists of his era. As a child, all of it appeared so glamorous and thrilling — the fairytale origin story, the old-school Romantic virtuosity, the awards and accolades, the autograph-seekers. Again then, I had no clue concerning the actuality of a life in music, how a lot it exams you, calls for limitless devotion and dedication. And I did not understand how lonely it’s to be the one brown individual on the stage. I do know that now.

Like me, Watts was combined: Black father, white mom. Studying interviews and articles from early in his profession, I understand that he was no extra capable of sidestep the minefields of race than anybody else in twentieth century America. He informed The Christian Science Monitor in 1982: “After I was younger, I used to be within the peculiar place with my college pals of not being white and never being Black both. In some way I did not slot in very effectively in any respect.” And in a New York Occasions profile from 1971, I discover this cringe-worthy description: “Relying upon temper and lighting, Watts is able to showing as variously as an austere mulatto dominating one in all man’s most unique professions, a wistful pa’san surveying some Mediterranean terrace, or a bookish adolescent confronting his bar mitzvah.” Granted, occasions (and language) have modified since 1971, however my very own id has been equally debated as I’ve navigated an trade that is discovered me “unique” and exhausting to position.

I by no means had the prospect to speak with Watts concerning the very current adjustments in our discipline — the long-overdue appreciation of Black composers; some progress, lastly, towards variety in American orchestras, opera homes and live performance halls. I hope it made him blissful to witness these developments. However this I do know: Identical to me, each single Black and brown musician who’s lively on these levels at this time appeared to André Watts as a guiding mild. He impressed us along with his attractive artistry, and he allowed us to see ourselves in his world, to hope and dream and work as exhausting as we may to comply with in his footsteps. He led by instance, and later in his life he actively mentored the following era of pianists as a Distinguished Professor of Piano at Indiana College’s Jacobs College of Music. He cared about his college students on a deeply private degree; he wrote to me some years in the past recommending one in all them for a younger artists program I directed, describing the younger man as “an altogether fantastic human being.”

Watts beloved music with what Bernstein referred to as “a complete embrace.” In his later years, he tried to maintain performing regardless of harm and sickness. The final time I noticed him was in 2016, his first recital after a two-year hiatus, in a marathon program that included at least Schubert‘s monumental “Wanderer” Fantasy. The most cancers was already taking a toll. Backstage after the live performance, he was drained and sad along with his efficiency. I do not bear in mind what I stated that afternoon, however I want I had informed him how a lot it is due to him that I am even right here — how a lot I owe my profession as a pianist to listening to his live shows after I was a bit woman, and to seeing him forward of me within the lineage that’s our musical household.

Reflecting on that lineage, I reached out to Bernstein’s youngsters for his or her recollections of the musical relationship that began André’s profession. His daughter Jamie Bernstein despatched these phrases:

“Alexander and I have been sufficiently old to recollect André Watts’ Younger Folks’s Concert events debut and the vibe our dad communicated on that nationwide broadcast. One thing uncommon and thrilling was about to occur. We all know Watts’ path was stuffed with maddening obstacles, as is prone to occur to only about any individual of shade on this nation. However we’re so glad that he was really embraced and acknowledged by the world he labored and performed in. He raised us all. As we Jewish people say, might his reminiscence be a blessing.”

His reminiscence shouldn’t be solely a blessing, however a legacy. André Watts opened a door of risk and promise for my era, and we stroll by way of it gratefully, all the time cautious to depart it vast open behind us for the generations to return.