Kevin Kenner
Encyclopedia
Kevin Kenner is an American concert pianist.

Biography

At the age of 17, Kenner participated in the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw
Warsaw
Warsaw is the capital and largest city of Poland. It is located on the Vistula River, roughly from the Baltic Sea and from the Carpathian Mountains. Its population in 2010 was estimated at 1,716,855 residents with a greater metropolitan area of 2,631,902 residents, making Warsaw the 10th most...

 and was awarded the 10th prize and a special prize from the jury called Honorable Mention. Ten years later, in 1990 he returned to Warsaw and achieved second place, (there was no first prize awarded that year,) and the Polonaise
Polonaise
The polonaise is a slow dance of Polish origin, in 3/4 time. Its name is French for "Polish."The polonaise had a rhythm quite close to that of the Swedish semiquaver or sixteenth-note polska, and the two dances have a common origin....

 Prize. Earlier that year he won the third prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition
International Tchaikovsky Competition
The International Tchaikovsky Competition is a classical music competition held every four years in Moscow, Russia for pianists, violinists, and cellists between 16 and 30 years of age, and singers between 19 and 32 years of age...

 in Moscow
Moscow
Moscow is the capital, the most populous city, and the most populous federal subject of Russia. The city is a major political, economic, cultural, scientific, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the continent...

. Other awards include the International Terence Judd Award (London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, 1990), The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition was first held in 1962 in Fort Worth, Texas and is hosted by Van Cliburn Foundation. It was created by Fort Worth area teachers in honor of Van Cliburn, who had won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition four years prior with Tchaikovsky's...

 (Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...

 in 1989,) and the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition
Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition
The Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition is based in Salt Lake City, Utah and is the second largest piano competition in the United States....

 (Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City, Utah
Salt Lake City is the capital and the most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. The name of the city is often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC. With a population of 186,440 as of the 2010 Census, the city lies in the Salt Lake City metropolitan area, which has a total population of 1,124,197...

 1988).

Kenner has since performed as soloist
Solo (music)
In music, a solo is a piece or a section of a piece played or sung by a single performer...

 with world class orchestras including the Hallé Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra
BBC Symphony Orchestra
The BBC Symphony Orchestra is the principal broadcast orchestra of the British Broadcasting Corporation and one of the leading orchestras in Britain.-History:...

, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra
Berlin Symphony Orchestra
The Konzerthausorchester Berlin is a symphony orchestra based in Berlin, Germany. The orchestra is resident at the Konzerthaus Berlin, designed by the architect Karl Friedrich Schinkel...

, the Warsaw Philharmonic, The Czech Philharmonic, the Belgian Radio and Television Philharmonic Brussels, the NHK Symphony Orchestra
NHK Symphony Orchestra
The in Tokyo, Japan began as the New Symphony Orchestra on October 5, 1926 and was the country's first professional symphony orchestra. Later, it changed its name to Japan Symphony Orchestra and in 1951, after receiving financial support from NHK, it took its current name...

, and in the US with the principal orchestras of San Francisco, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, New Jersey, Rochester, Baltimore, St. Paul and many others. He has been invited to work with many renowned conductors, including Sir Charles Groves
Charles Groves
Sir Charles Barnard Groves CBE was an English conductor. He was known for the breadth of his repertoire and for encouraging contemporary composers and young conductors....

, Sir Andrew Davis
Andrew Davis
Andrew Davis is the name of:* Andrew Jackson Davis , American spiritualist* Andy Davis , Washington Redskins player* Andrew Davis , American film director* Andrew M...

, Hans Vonk
Hans Vonk
Hans Vonk was a Dutch conductor.Vonk was born in Amsterdam, the son of Franciscus Cornelis and Wilhemina Vonk. His father was a violinist in the Concertgebouw Orchestra, and died when Vonk was age three. Vonk studied piano with Jaap Spaanderman at the Amsterdam Conservatory and law at Amsterdam...

, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
Stanisław Skrowaczewski is an internationally known classical conductor and composer. He was born in Lvov and became best known for his work with the Minnesota Orchestra....

, Jerzy Maksymiuk
Jerzy Maksymiuk
Jerzy Maksymiuk is a Polish orchestra conductor.Maksymiuk studied violin, piano, conducting and composition at the Warsaw Conservatory. In 1964 he won first prize in the Paderewski Piano Composition. Conducting soon became his principal career...

, Kazimierz Kord
Kazimierz Kord
Kazimierz Kord is a Polish conductor. Between 1939 and 1945, he studied piano at the Leningrad Conservatory. He also studied at the Academy of Music in Kraków....

, Jiri Belohlavek
Jirí Belohlávek
Jiří Bělohlávek is a Czech conductor. His father was a barrister and judge. In his youth Bělohlávek studied cello with Miloš Sádlo and was later a graduate of the Prague Conservatory and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague...

 and Antoni Wit
Antoni Wit
Antoni Wit is a Polish conductor. He is the present musical director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra.Wit graduated from Kraków's State Higher School of Music, studying conducting under Henryk Czyz and composition under Krzysztof Penderecki, going on to study under Nadia Boulanger in...

.

His achievements have won him critical acclaim from all over the world. He has been praised as "one of the finest American pianists to come along in years" (Howard Reich, Chicago Tribune), "...fulfilling a criterion which one only knows from great Chopinists such as Rubinstein, Benedetti-Michelangeli and Dinu Lipatti
Dinu Lipatti
Dinu Lipatti was a Romanian classical pianist and composer whose career was cut short by his death from Hodgkin's disease at age 33. He was elected posthumously to the Romanian Academy.-Biography:...

" (Winfried Wild, Schwaebische Zeitung, Germany). Adrian Jack
Adrian Jack
Adrian Frederick Joseph Jack is a British Composer.- Biography :Adrian Jack was born on 16 March 1943, in Datchet, near Slough, Buckinghamshire, England...

 of London's Independent describes one of Kenner's recitals as "...the best performance I have ever heard in the concert hall of all four of Chopin's Ballades".http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music--open-heart-surgery-adrian-jack-on-kevin-kenner-and-dmitry-bashkirov-1370864.html The Financial Times in London described Kenner as a "player of grace, subtle variety and strength, with a mature grasp of dramatic structure and proportion: in short, a grown-up musician nearing his peak." And the Washington Post recently proclaimed him "a major talent ... an artist whose intellect, imagination and pianism speak powerfully and eloquently." The conductor Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, who recorded with pianists such as Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein
Arthur Rubinstein KBE was a Polish-American pianist. He received international acclaim for his performances of the music of a variety of composers...

, claimed Kenner's Chopin interpretations to be the most sensitive and beautiful he remembered.

He has performed chamber music with the Tokyo String Quartet
Tokyo String Quartet
The is an international string quartet.The group formed in 1969 at the Juilliard School of Music. The founding members attended the Toho Gakuen School of Music in Tokyo, where they studied with Professor Hideo Saito. Soon after its formation the Quartet won First Prizes at the Coleman Competition,...

, the Endellion String Quartet, the Vogler String Quartet and the Panocha Quartet
Panocha Quartet
The Panocha Quartet in a Czech string quartet whose playing is admired for its fine tone, stylistic sensitivity, technical address and polish. It was formed at the Prague Conservatory in 1968 from a trio consisting of Jiří Panocha , Jaroslav Hlůzě , and Jaroslav Kulhan...

 among many others. He has toured with the Piazzoforte String Quintet performing arrangements of Ástor Piazzolla
Ástor Piazzolla
Ástor Pantaleón Piazzolla was an Argentine tango composer and bandoneón player. His oeuvre revolutionized the traditional tango into a new style termed nuevo tango, incorporating elements from jazz and classical music...

. Along with his concert appearances, he has given masterclasses for many years at the International Piano Festival in Krynica, Poland as well as in major centres in Japan and America. More recently he has been giving classes at the International Summer Music Academy in Kraków, Poland. He has also been invited to adjudicate in international music competitions in Asia, Europe and the US. Since 2001 he has been engaged as a professor of piano at the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...

, London, and some of his students have gone on to win prizes in international piano competitions.

Kevin Kenner’s recordings include many discs of Chopin works as well as recordings of Ravel, Schumann and Piazzolla, the last of which was awarded a “Fryderyk” in Poland last year as best CD of the year under the category Chamber Music.

He was a member of the jury at the International Chopin Piano Competition in 2010. Adam Harasiewicz
Adam Harasiewicz
Adam Harasiewicz is a Polish classical concert pianist.He won the first prize at the International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition in 1955....

, Nelson Freire
Nelson Freire
Nelson Freire is a Brazilian classical pianist.Freire began playing the piano when he was three years old. He replayed from memory pieces his older sister had just performed. His teachers in Brazil were Nise Obino and Lucia Branco, former students of a pupil of Liszt. For his first public recital,...

, Bella Davidovich
Bella Davidovich
Bella Mikhaylovna Davidovich is a Jewish Soviet-born American pianist.Davidovich was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, into a family of musicians and began studying piano when she was six. Three years later, she was the soloist for a performance of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 1. In 1939, she moved to...

, Martha Argerich
Martha Argerich
Martha Argerich is an Argentine pianist.-Early life:Argerich was born in Buenos Aires and started playing the piano at age three...

, and Piotr Paleczny
Piotr Paleczny
Piotr Paleczny is a Polish classical pianist, winner of the 3rd prize of the International Frederick Chopin Piano Competition in 1970....

 were among other jury members.

Recordings

Kevin has made numerous recordings, including those of Chopin's Ballades, Preludes, and both Piano Concertos, with conductor Antoni Wit
Antoni Wit
Antoni Wit is a Polish conductor. He is the present musical director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra.Wit graduated from Kraków's State Higher School of Music, studying conducting under Henryk Czyz and composition under Krzysztof Penderecki, going on to study under Nadia Boulanger in...

 and the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Poland. In 2007, he also released a recording of various works by Maurice Ravel
Maurice Ravel
Joseph-Maurice Ravel was a French composer known especially for his melodies, orchestral and instrumental textures and effects...

.

External links

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