“Toward the end of 2019, the classical pianist André Watts was facing what seemed to be an insurmountable impediment,” writes Susan Gubar in Thursday’s (5/28) New York Times. After surgery to repair the nerve fiber of his left hand, “The prognosis was not good…. Could [Maurice Ravel’s Concerto for the Left Hand in D Major] be tackled by the right hand, André wondered as he began working on a transcription? … Thomas Wilkins, a guest conductor of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, and Robert Spano, the musical director of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, immediately agreed to the proposed Ravel program…. In February, André had to cancel the Detroit concerts [due to] tendinitis.… In March, André and his wife … received word that the [Atlanta] concerts had been canceled [due to the pandemic]. They took solace in the fact that André would be freed up to start his cancer treatments earlier than expected. Perhaps … he would be able to play while in treatment…. The significance of André’s perseverance dawned on me…. The best musicians, he claims, ‘strive to live and grow as themselves while cultivating compassion for all other human beings.’ He has become, hands down, a prime exemplum of that striving.”
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