KEVIN KENNER
An American pianist born May 19, 1963 in Coronado, California. Kenner showed his interest in piano from a very young age and studied there with Polish pianist Krzysztof Brzuza. As a teenager, Brzuza sent him to Poland to audition for the eminent professor Ludwik Stefanski, who immediately prepared him for the 1980 International Chopin Competition in Warsaw, where Kevin Kenner was the youngest competitor and in which he received a special award as the most promising talent. He continued his studies for the next five years with legendary pianist Leon Fleisher at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore. After that he concluded his formal training in Hannover with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling. In 1990 Kevin Kenner’s artistry was recognized throughout the world as he received three prestigious awards: the top prize at the International Chopin Competition in Warsaw (together with the Peoples’ Prize and prize for the best Polonaise), the International Terrence Judd Award in London, and the bronze medal at the Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow (together with the prize for best performance of a Russian work). And before that he won prizes at the Van Cliburn International Competition (Fort Worth, 1989) and the Gina Bachauer International Competition (Salt Lake City, 1988).
Since 2000 Kevin Kenner taught at the Royal College of Music and has also been giving masterclasses in Japan, the USA and in Poland. Since 2016 he has been engaged as a piano professor in Frost School of Music at the University of Miami. He has also served as a Visiting Professor of the Academy of Music in Lodz.
Kevin Kenner has performed as soloist with world-class orchestras including the Hallé Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Czech Philharmonic, the Belgian Radio and Television Philharmonic, the NHK Symphony of Japan, 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 worked with renowned conductors, including Sir Charles Groves, Andrew Davis, Hans Vonk, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Kazimierz Kord, Jiri Belohlavek and Antoni Wit.
He has been invited to perform chamber music with illustrious string quartets such as the Belcea, Tokyo, Endellion, Vogler and Panocha. He has toured and recorded with the Piazzoforte ensemble performing special arrangements of Astor Piazzolla, Chopin, and Bach. He currently works as a duo-partner with the world famous South-Korean violinist Kuyng Wha Chung. He is also creator and artistic director of the Ensemble XIX, performing the concert music of Chopin on 19th century instruments. He has been invited to adjudicate in some of the most celebrated international piano competitions in Asia, Europe and the US. And in 2010 he comes full circle, having been asked to serve as a juror on the next International Chopin Competition.
Kevin Kenner’s recordings include discs of Chopin works as well as recordings of Ravel, Schumann, Beethoven and Piazzolla, the latter having been awarded a “Fryderyk” in Poland as best CD of the year 2006 under the category Chamber Music. His recording of Chopin solo piano works on an 1848 Pleyel for the National Chopin Institute of Poland received a 5 star “superb” rating by the French magazine Diapason.