Jon Batiste at Cooper Union
Written for presentation at the Juilliard Black Alumni Association Inaugural Mixer Lincoln Center, September 9, 2023 A few weeks ago I saw an announcement of a special performance by pianist Jon Batiste at The Cooper Union Great Hall. I jumped at the chance because I wanted to present him with a copy of my memoir titled Practicing for Love . I, too, am a Juilliard grad, and my father was one of the first African-American pianists to study at Juilliard. He and Leontyne Price were classmates. He then went on to direct the Fisk Jubilee Singers. Of course, all of that history was included in the book. I stood in line for the performance, which was advertised as “A Musical Prescription,” and was co-sponsored by the Louis Armstrong Center for Music and Medicine at Mount Sinai Health System’s Assessment of Music Experiences in Navigating Depression (AMEND Lab) and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, the Hall’s education and social impact arm. The event began half an hour late, and the pa