The American Philosophical Society has elected Grammy-award winning pianist and IU professor André Watts into the organization, according to a press release.
Watts has been a faculty member of the Jacobs School of Music since 2004 and was named a distinguished professor in 2017. He is also the Dora B. Hamlin Endowed Chair in Music.
A piano prodigy from Nuremberg, Germany, he became the youngest person to ever receive an honorary doctorate from Yale University at age 26. He also won the Most Promising New Classical Recording Artist Grammy in 1964. Along with the Grammy, he has won the Avery Fisher Prize and the National Medal of Arts. He was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl of Fame, the American Classical Musical Hall of Fame and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well.
“Of course, I am immensely humbled and honored to be in such incredibly illustrious company,” Watts said in the release.
The American Philosophical Society is America’s oldest learned society, founded by Benjamin Franklin in 1743. According to the society’s website, the organization’s purpose is to honor renowned scientists, humanists and leaders.
The society currently has 1,051 members, and former members include Charles Darwin, Thomas Jefferson and Albert Einstein.
