International Pianist Sean Kennard

As the beautiful Allegheny-Clarion River Valley indulges in the lushness of summer, come into the air conditioned comfort of Lincoln Hall and luxuriate in the timeless beauty of piano masterpieces in the hands of internationally acclaimed pianist, Sean Kennard in Lincoln Hall in Foxburg at 2:00 PM on Sunday, July 16.  

You will be moved and entranced both by Sean Kennard’s pianist sensitivity and virtuosic bravura. The Washington Post wrote of his “powerful and involved music making” and described him as “a strong luminous pianist.”

A recent prize winner in the Queen Elisabeth Competition, Sean’s debut recording received rave reviews:  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.”   Here is his Chopin Ballade No. 1 in G minor, Opus 23, which Sean will be playing in Foxburg.

Fanfare wrote that “his playing is full of life and sparkle… ” with a “mastery of Chopin’s idiom… in fingerwork that floats featherlike over the keys in the fast-paced preludes, giving the impression of complete effortlessness and in an emotional responsiveness to the poetics of the slow pieces that is quite touching.” 

Sean Kennard received his undergraduate Bachelors from the esteemed Curtis Institute of Music, a Masters from The Juilliard School, and is completing his Doctorate of Musical Arts at Yale University.  He has accepted a position on the faculty of Stetson University beginning in the fall of 2017. Kennard completed a two-year residential requirement of coursework and writing a thesis at Yale, and is in the first of three years of required professional experience. That includes performing and teaching, and leads toward a D.M.A. in 2020 once he submits a portfolio and completes a final oral exam and recital.

After the concert, please join us to meet this most interesting and talented young artist at a reception and exhibit opening at the Red Brick Gallery and Gift Shop on Main Street, Foxburg, featuring the artwork of Donna Edmonds, watercolorist;  Cheri Lee Anderton-Yarnell, potter; and Glenn Thompson, photographer.

Tickets are Adults $25, ARCA Members $20 and Students $5.   You may reserve tickets by calling 724-659-3153 or may purchase tickets online here.

Just an hour and half north of Pittsburgh, Lincoln Hall’s intimate acoustics provide a truly inspired environment to enjoy chamber music and pianists performing on its 7 foot Steinway. Built in 1909, the stage’s backdrop is an original hand-painted canvas of an actual scene downstream on the Allegheny River.  Lincoln Hall has a capacity audience of 120 and is located on the second floor of the Foxburg Free Library.

Plan to Make a Day of it in the beautiful Allegheny River Valley and Foxburg!  Enjoy the glory of summer with a walk along the Allegheny River trail or rent bicycles or do a Segway tour of RiverStone Estate with Foxburg Tours.  Have lunch at the Allegheny Grille with seating overlooking the Allegheny River, or for more casual fare at Foxburg Pizza with salads, sandwiches and pizza.  Plan to enjoy wine tasting at Foxburg Wine Cellars and savor a gourmet coffee and hand made chocolate at Divani Chocolatier and Barrista.  Or spend the night in the lovely Foxburg Inn, where every room has a river view.

Sean Kennard

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.

Sean has appeared in recital and chamber music in such venues as Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall, the Kennedy Center Terrace Theater, Sall Cortot (Paris), Palais des Beaux-arts and Theatre Royal de la Monnaie (Brussels), Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon), Chopin Society (Warsaw), and major venues in Italy, Japan, Korea, Morocco and Chile.

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.

Sean is currently engaged in doctoral studies at the Yale School of Music in the studio of Boris Berman. Kennard has completed a two-year residential requirement of coursework and writing a thesis at Yale, and is in the first of three years of required professional experience. That includes performing and teaching, and leads toward a D.M.A. in 2020 once he submits a portfolio and completes a final oral exam and recital.   Sean has accepted a position on the faculty of Stetson University beginning in the fall of 2017.

Sean Kennard, Pianist

Preludes Op. 28                                                 Frédéric Chopin
No. 11 (B major)
No. 13 (F sharp major)
No. 21 (B flat major)
No. 23 (F major)
No. 24 (D minor)


Ballade in G minor, Op. 23


Preludes Op. 28
No. 1 (C major)
No. 3 (G major)
No. 4 (E minor)
No. 7 (A major)
No. 8 (F sharp minor)
No. 15 (D flat major)
No. 16 (B flat minor)

Scherzo in B flat minor, Op. 31

 

—Intermission—

 

Preludes from Book 1                                        Claude Debussy
No. 11, “La danse de Puck”
No. 7, “Ce qu’a vu le vent d’ouest”
No. 8, “La fille aux cheveux de lin”
No. 5, “Les collines d’Anacapri”

Prelude from Book 2
No. 12, “Feux d’artifice”

Three Movements from Petrouchka                  Igor Stravinsky