COURTESY HALEKULAN Andre Watts opens the 2008 Honolulu Symphony and Halekulani Masterworks series tomorrow.

Halekulani honors Watts with inaugural award

Andre Watts will receive Halekulani's inaugural "Lifetime Achievement Legend Award" at the hotel tonight.

The new annual award was created to recognize exceptional contributions to the arts by masters.

A private awards reception will feature an all Brahms musical theme, paying tribute to the Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2, which Watts will perform the opening night of the season, at 8 p.m. tomorrow. Tickets for the symphony concert are $19 to $70. The concert repeats at 4 p.m. Sunday.

Watts burst upon the music world at the age of 16 when Leonard Bernstein chose him to debut with the New York Philharmonic in their Young People's Concerts, broadcast nationwide.

Watts, who has played before royalty in Europe and heads of government internationally, also is a regular guest of major orchestras, as well as televised music programs.

His most recent television appearances are with the Philadelphia Orchestra on the occasion of the orchestra's 100th Anniversary Gala and a performance of the Brahms Concerto No. 2 with the Seattle Symphony, Gerard Schwarz conducting, for PBS.