TRYON, N.C. - s4story -- MEDIA ALERT

Internationally renowned pianist, conductor, educator, and curator Awadagin Pratt will perform at the Tryon Fine Arts Center (TFAC) in Western North Carolina on Saturday evening, October 3 at 6:00 p.m. The concert will benefit the newly launched Nina Simone and Samuel Waymon Music Scholarship Fund.

Awadagin Pratt began piano lessons at six and violin lessons at age nine. With a violin scholarship he enrolled in University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign at the age of 16, then transferred to the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore where he was the school's first student to receive diplomas in three different performance areas: piano, violin, and conducting.

In 1992 Pratt became the first African-American pianist to win the Naumburg International Piano Competition.

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Honoring the legacies of the late singer and pianist Nina Simone (born Eunice Waymon) and her brother, pianist, actor, award-winning composer, and lecturer Dr. Samuel Waymon, the Nina Simone and Samuel Waymon Music Scholarship Fund was created to support young musicians from throughout the southeastern United States.

Ms. Simone (1933–2003) and Dr. Waymon (1944–) were both born in Tryon.

Throughout his career, Awadagin Pratt has amplified the voices of the past and present, connected with the diverse talents of this era's most prolific and creative minds, and widened the path for a new generation of musicians. He is currently Professor of Piano at the prestigious San Francisco Conservatory of Music and contributes to numerous projects across a wide range of disciplines.

Upon request, Mr. Pratt is available for interviews via telephone, Zoom, or WhatsApp.

Please contact CM Artists New York at 212.864.1005 or by fax at 212.864.1066 to schedule an interview.

Well positioned among the most important regional performing arts centers in the eastern United States, the Tryon Fine Arts Center (TFAC) is located within a comfortable driving distance of Asheville, North Carolina; Hendersonville, North Carolina; Spartanburg, South Carolina; Greenville, South Carolina; Brevard, North Carolina; eastern Tennessee; and the Charlotte, North Carolina, metropolitan area.

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Tickets for the October 3rd concert are available through the Tryon Fine Arts Center and via the following online link: https://app.arts-people.com/?show=338870

Fiscal sponsorship of the Nina Simone and Samuel Waymon Music Scholarship Fund is provided by The AFRICAN CONNECTIONS Research and Education Fund, Inc. (ACREF).

Use of the Tryon Fine Arts Center facility has been made possible through the generous support of music patrons Ben Cox and Elizabeth Cummings.

A representative sampling of Awadagin Pratt's extraordinary artistry is available online at: https://africanconnections.com/Docs/Awadagin_Pratt_Showcase.pdf