Performance Preferences
Pratt is celebrated not only as a virtuoso but also for his unconventional appearance when performing. “Pratt takes the stage at Boston's Jordan Hall in a subtle but colorful green-and-lavender striped and checked shirt. His black pants reveal a dash of whimsicality below the cuffs: socks adorned with a portrait of Van Gogh” (Shepard 1998). Moreover, Pratt has long affected dreadlocks, emulating tennis star Yannick Noah. Pratt has explained that, aside from improving his own level of comfort, his sartorial choices are calculated to break down barriers between the audience, the performer, and the music, a result in keeping with his hope that he can build enthusiasm for classical music among youth and audiences not traditionally interested in the art form.
Although fully equipped to meet the technical demands of showpieces by composers like Franz Liszt, Pratt has gravitated more to literature that, while technically demanding, has less surface glitter and more introspection. Among other composers whose works he has espoused are Johann Sebastian Bach, Ludwig van Beethoven, Johannes Brahms, César Franck, Edvard Grieg, Modest Mussorgsky, and Sergei Rachmaninoff.
Read more about this topic: Awadagin Pratt
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