At the age of 17, American pianist *Kevin Kenner* participated in the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw and was awarded the 10th prize and a special prize from the jury for his promising talent. Ten years later, in 1990 he returned to Warsaw to win the top prize, the People’s Prize and the Polonaise Prize. Earlier that year he won the bronze medal at the International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, together with a special prize for his interpretation of Russian music. He is the only American to to medaled in both competitions. Other awards of this Steinway Artist include the International Terence Judd Award (London, 1990), the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition (Fort Worth, 1989) and the Gina Bachauer International Competition (Salt Lake City, 1988).
Kevin Kenner has since performed as soloist with world-class orchestras including the BBC and Berlin Symphony Orchestras, the Warsaw Philharmonic, the Czech Philharmonic, the Belgian Radio and Television Philharmonic, the NHK Symphony of Japan and in the U.S. with the principal orchestras of San Francisco, San Diego, Salt Lake City, Kansas City, New Jersey, Rochester, Baltimore, St. Paul and others. He has been invited to work with many renowned conductors including Sir Charles Groves, Andrew Davis, Hans Vonk, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski, Jerzy Maksymiuk, Kazimierz Kord, Jiri Belohlavek and Antoni Wit.
His achievements have won him critical acclaim around 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”. 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 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 Artur 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, Fine Arts and Panocha String Quartets. Along with his concert appearances, he has been giving masterclasses for many years at the International Piano Festival in Krynica in Poland as well as in major centers in Japan and America. Recently he has been giving classes at the International Summer Music Academy in Krakow, Poland. He is professor at the Royal College of Music in London, and his students have won prizes in various international competitions.
Kevin Kenner has recorded the Chopin Scherzos, Chopin Preludes (highly recommended by BBC Music Magazine), CDs of piano works by Maurice Ravel and Robert Schumann and the Chopin Piano Concertos with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Poland under the direction of Antoni Wit. He recently performed the Chopin Concerto in F minor on an historic Pleyel piano with the Age of Enlightenment Orchestra under the direction of Franz Bruggen.
