Kevin Kenner

Biography

At the age of 17, Kenner participated in the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw 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 Prize. Earlier that year he won the third prize at the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. Other awards include the International Terence Judd Award (London, 1990), The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (Fort Worth, Texas in 1989,) and the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition (Salt Lake City, Utah 1988).

Kenner has since 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 Brussels, the NHK Symphony Orchestra, 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, Sir Andrew Davis, Hans Vonk, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Kazimierz Kord, Jiri Belohlavek and Antoni Wit.

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" (Winfried Wild, Schwaebische Zeitung, Germany). Adrian Jack 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".[1] 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, claimed Kenner's Chopin interpretations to be the most sensitive and beautiful he remembered.

He has performed chamber music with the Tokyo String Quartet, the Endellion String Quartet, the Vogler String Quartet and the Panocha Quartet among many others. He has toured with the Piazzoforte String Quintet performing arrangements of Ástor Piazzolla. 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, 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, Nelson Freire, Bella Davidovich, Martha Argerich, and Piotr Paleczny 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 and the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Poland. In 2007, he also released a recording of various works by Maurice Ravel.