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Event
Sundays @ Four: Kenneth Renshaw & Audrey Vardanega
Sensational Crowden School alumni Kenneth Renshaw (violin) and Audrey Vardanega (piano) reunite at their alma mater for a concert of Mozart, Schubert, Bach, and Brahms. A rare chance to catch these rising young international stars together back here at home!
"Like John Lennon and Paul McCartney, violinist Kenneth Renshaw and pianist Audrey Vardanega met in middle schoolin their case at Berkeleys Crowden School, an incubator for all sorts of musical talent and theyve been collaborating ever since."
San Francisco Chronicle
Program:
Mozart Sonata in E minor K. 304
Brahms Klavierstücke, Op. 118
Schubert Impromptu No. 1 in C minor, Op. 90
Schubert Impromptu No. 3 in G-flat minor, Op. 90
Brahms Sonata No. 3 in D minor, Op. 108
Join us for a free "Meet-the-Artists" reception following the concert.
Concert and reception sponsored by Cary Koh and Ting Chin
About Sundays @ Four:
Crowden presents chamber music to the public with Sundays @ Four, our series of low-cost, informal concerts featuring distinguished chamber musicians.
Artists speak about each work and share their personal observations and inspirations in these intimate concerts, then mingle with the audience in receptions after the performance.
Tickets: $25 general admission, $20 seniors/students 18+, and free for children under 18.
About Kenneth Renshaw
With playing hailed as "gorgeous, finely detailed...positively ravishing, a marvel of emotional maturity and assurance" (San Francisco Classical Voice) and praised for its "true chamber music-making, and a natural, honest sense of communication" (The Strad Magazine), violinist and Crowden School alumnus Kenneth Renshaw has appeared as soloist with orchestras throughout the world, including the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Orchestre de Chambre de Wallonie, the Lithuanian National Orchestra, the China Philharmonic, the China NCPA Orchestra, the Jenaer Philharmonie, the Staatskapelle Weimar, the California Symphony, the Oakland Symphony, and the Orquestra de Festival Ushuaia, among others.
He has given sold-out recitals at the Auditorium du Louvre (Paris), Brussels' Flagey Studios, the Menuhin Festival Gstaad (Switzerland), the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele (Germany), and has repeatedly been a featured artist on the national radio stations of Germany, Belgium, Argentina, Lithuania, and the United States.
A top prizewinner in many major competitions, Kenneth won First Prize and the EMCY Prize for Best Semifinal Recital at the 2012 Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition, First Prize, the Mozart Concerto Prize, and the Sonata Prize at the 2010 Louis Spohr International Violin Competition, First Prize at the 2009 Los Angeles Philharmonic Bronislaw Kaper Awards, and is a Laureate of the prestigious Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition of Belgium (2015).
He is also winner of the Brucia Foundation's Avanti Award (2012), an annual grant for selected artists of any age pursuing careers in visual or performing arts.
A passionate chamber musician, he has collaborated in performances with many esteemed artists, including pianist Leon Fleisher, violinists Shmuel Ashkenasi, Pamela Frank, Cho-Liang Lin, cellists Peter Wiley, Matt Haimovitz and Ralph Kirshbaum, violists Kim Kashkashian and Atar Arad, and flutist Sir James Galway. He was a member of the Soleil Piano Trio from 2008-2010, First Prize winners of the Mondavi Center for the Arts Chamber Music Competition. Kenneth was an Evnin Rising Star at the Caramoor Festival (Katonah, NY) and has performed at the Ravinia Festival's Steans Institute, the Perlman Music Programs Residencies in Sarasota (Florida) and Stowe (Vermont), Music@Menlo, and the 2013 Kronberg Academy Violin Masterclasses. He performed and studied at the Verbier Festival Academy for the summer of 2016.
Kenneth has studied with Donald Weilertstein at the New England Conservatory, Itzhak Perlman at the Perlman Music Program, and Li Lin at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's Pre-college division. He is currently studying at the Juilliard School with Mr. Perlman and Mr. Lin as recipient of a Kovner Fellowship. Over the years he has been generously loaned violins and bows from the Juilliard School, Bein & Fushi/The Stradivarius Society of Chicago, and the Maestro Foundation of Southern California. He currently plays on a 1774 G.B. Guadagnini on loan from the Juilliard/Tarisio collection, and a violin by American maker Ryan Soltis (which he owns).
About Audrey Vardanega
Praised as a player with the kind of freedom, authority, and strengththat one expects from the worlds finest pianists (The Berkeley Daily Planet), twenty-year-old pianist Audrey Vardanega began her piano studies at the Alameda Starland Music Center with Araks Aghazarian at the age of six. Born and raised in Oakland, California, Vardanega began formal piano training with acclaimed pianist Robert Schwartz at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music from 2002 to 2013 as well as formal composition training with Arkadi Serper at the Crowden School from 2004 to 2013. She has also received piano instruction from Gary Graffman, Jon Nakamatsu, Alain Planés, Yefim Bronfman, Wojciech Switala, and Richard Goode. Her past teachers include Seymour Lipkin, Jeremy Siepmann, and Christopher Elton. She currently studies with Victor Rosenbaum and Maria Asteriadou in New York City.
Currently a second-semester junior at Columbia University in the City of New York, Audrey spent her fall term studying Political Science at the University College London and is currently resuming her studies at Columbia University. Vardanega was the 2006 recipient of a full scholarship to the Vienna International Young Pianists Academy in Austria where she performed as a piano soloist amongst an international group of musicians. Vardanega received first prize in the Vienna Gottfried Von Einem Competition; she was also named the first prize in the U.S. Open Music Competition Showcase Solo division. Additionally, Vardanega acted as the Principal Pianist for the San Francisco Symphony Youth Orchestra from 2011-2013 and spent the summer of 2012 on tour with the SF Symphony Youth Orchestra, performing in venues like the Berlin Philharmonic and the Munich Gasteig. By invitation from the Zephyr Chamber Music Course and Festival in Courmayeur, Italy, Vardanega studied and performed chamber music as a pianist in 2004; in 2008, Vardanega participated in the International Institute for Young Musicians located in Lawrence, Kansas. In August 2013, Vardanega participated and performed in the Ambialet international piano festival in Ambialet, France, studying with Debussy expert Paul Roberts. In the summer of 2015, Vardanega participated and performed in the St. George International Piano Festival in Asprovalta, Greece. In September of 2015, Vardanega participated in a series of masterclasses in Lucca, Italy with Polish pianist Wojciech Switala. Vardanega made her debut as the youngest soloist in the history of the Midsummer Mozart Festival under the baton of the acclaimed Maestro George Cleve in the summer of 2010, appearing again with the orchestra in the summers of 2012 and 2013. Among others, Vardanega has also appeared as a soloist with San Franciscos Symphony Parnassus and the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra. Vardanega made her solo recital debut at the age of 12 with IMG Artists Festival Del Sole in 2008since then, she has been featured in solo recitals with Hangzhou's Grand Theater, the Hangzhou Conservatory of Music, San Franciscos Old First Concerts, the Piedmont Piano Company, St. Paul Towers, the San Francisco Conservatory, the Crowden School, and the Hillside Club Concert Series. Vardanega has also been interviewed and featured on various radio stations including Berkeley's Piano segment on KPFA 94.1 hosted by Larry Bensky as well as New York's WWFM.
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LocationCrowden Music Center (View)
1475 Rose Street
Berkeley, CA 94702
United States
Categories
| Kid Friendly: Yes! |
| Dog Friendly: No |
| Non-Smoking: Yes! |
| Wheelchair Accessible: Yes! |
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