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Sean Kennard, pianist
November 6, 2016, 7:30 pm
free admission
The Masaki School of Music presents pianist Sean Kennard in a November 6 solo recital featuring works by Scarlatti, Chopin, Debussy, Rachmaninov & Mussorgsky. See the Orvis recital program listing. Mr. Kennard returns to Hawai’i to remember his first teacher, Ellen Masaki. (This is a free concert, but please consider making a donation to the UH Foundation’s Ellen Masaki Endowed Piano Scholarship Fund.)
Mr. Kennard will also perform Sunday November 13 with the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra at Blaisdell Concert Hall. This program features works by Wagner, Liszt and Sibelius. For tickets, call 808-946-8742 or visit: hawaiisymphonyorchestra.org. (The Masaki School of Music requests a donation be made “In Memory of Ellen Masaki” to the Hawai’i Symphony Orchestra. Donate to HSO online)
Sean Kennard has won top prizes in the Queen Elisabeth Competition (Belgium), the International Music Competition of Viña del Mar (Chile), the Vendome International Piano Competition (Portugal), the Sendai International Music Competition (Japan), the Hilton Head International Piano Competition (USA), the National Chopin Competition, the Iowa Piano Competition, the American Pianists Association, and the International Chopin Competition of the Pacific.
Kennard has appeared as soloist with such orchestras as Japan’s NHK Chamber Orchestra, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, the Yamagata Symphony Orchestra, the Sendai Philharmonic, the Kyushu Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Belgique and Orchestre Royal de Chambre in Belgium, the German Chamber Orchestra of Frankfurt am Main, the Orchestre Philharmonique du Maroc, Orquesta Sinfonica de Chile, Orquesta Filarmónica de Montevideo, Sinfonia Perugina, the Indianapolis Chamber Orchestra and the orchestras of Charleston, Sioux City and Honolulu.
The Washington Post wrote of his “powerful and involved music making” and described him as “a strong luminous pianist.” American Record Guide said that he “plays Chopin’s preludes with more poise and vision than most pianists who have recorded them. He boasts a huge, romantic sound and a bold melodic vision.” Fanfare wrote that “his playing is full of life and sparkle.”
Sean’s first teacher was Ellen Masaki. He received a Bachelor of Music from the Curtis Institute of Music in 2004. In his final year at Curtis he won the institute’s Sergei Rachmaninoff Award, given to one graduating pianist each year. After subsequent work with pianist Enrique Graf he received a Master of Music from the Juilliard School (studios of Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald) and spent the following two years in the studio of Richard Goode. He is currently engaged in doctoral studies at the Yale School of Music in the studio of Boris Berman.
The Orvis recital will include: