FOXBURG, Pa. (EYT) — An international piano competition prize winner will be performing at the Allegheny RiverStone Center for the Arts on Sunday, July 16.
(Pictured above: Sean Kennard)
Winning competitions assigns a certain elevated status to those who reach pinnacles of achievement, whether it’s the Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins, World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen or Emlenton’s International Judo champion, Dr. Andor Paposi-Jobb. In the musical arena, competitions and awards serve the same purpose across musical genres, from the Grammy Awards to the Billboard Music Awards and the CMA Awards.
In classical music, numerous global competitions abound and Allegheny RiverStone Center for the Arts is very pleased to present a pianist who has won top prizes in the Queen Elisabeth Competition, the International Music Competition of Viña del Mar, the Vendome International Piano Competition, the Sendai International Music Competition, the Hilton Head International Piano Competition, the National Chopin Competition, the Iowa Piano Competition, the American Pianists Association and the International Chopin Competition of the Pacific.
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 p.m. on Sunday, July 16.
You will be moved and entranced by his musical sensitivity and virtuosic bravura. The Washington Post wrote of his “powerful and involved music making” and described him as “a strong luminous pianist.”
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.”
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 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.
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, Prague Radio Symphony, 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.
After the concert, please join us to meet this most interesting and talented young artist at a reception and opening at the Red Brick Gallery and Gift Shop on Main Street, Foxburg, for the exhibit, “Inspired Expressions: Brush, Lens and Clay” featuring the artwork of Donna Edmonds, watercolorist; Glenn Thompson, photographer; and Cheri Lee Anderton-Yarnell, potter.
Tickets are Adults $25.00, ARCA Members $20.00, and Students $5.00. You may purchase tickets online at www.alleghenyriverstone.org or to reserve, call 724-659-3153.
