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| Byron Schenkman |
Biography
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BYRON SCHENKMAN performs as a soloist, chamber musician, and as harpsichordist and artistic director of the Seattle Baroque Orchestra. A recipient of the Erwin Bodky Award from the Cambridge Society for Early Music, Schenkman has recorded more than thirty discs of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century repertoire, including recordings on historical instruments from the National Music Museum and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He is a member of the Boston-based period instrument ensemble Gut Reaction and has been a featured guest with the Chameleon Arts Ensemble of Boston, the Daedalus Quartet, the Northwest Sinfonietta, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, Philharmonia Northwest, and the Portland Baroque Orchestra. His piano playing was described in The New York Times as "sparkling," "elegant," and "insightful." In 2009 he participated in the Haydn and Mendelssohn bicentennial celebrations with performances at the Frick Collection in New York and the Library of Congress in Washington, DC. Schenkman is a graduate of the New England Conservatory and received his Master of Music degree with honors in performance from the Indiana University School of Music. He has taught music history at Seattle University and is an adjunct instructor of piano and harpsichord at Cornish College of the Arts.
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Press
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“An elegant stylist with a cleanly articulated sound ”
--Allan Kozinn, New York Times
“Mr. Schenkman demonstrated a lovely singing tone… an expressively phrased performance of Mendelssohn’s “Song Without Words” in E flat (Op. 30, No. 1)… a sparkling rendition of Haydn’s Sonata in E flat (Hob:XVI:52),… an elegant, insightful rendition of the Sarabande from Bach’s French Suite No. 5. ”
--Vivien Schweitzer, New York Times
“Schenkman provided beautifully sculpted piano playing… stylistically brilliant, with crisp and dynamic sonorities
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--Mark Kanny, Pittsburgh Post-Tribune
“Schenkman is an extraordinary keyboard virtuoso...his interpretation of Mozart's gorgeous, theatrical Fantasia in D Minor, K. 397, was stunning ”
--Peter Jacobi, Bloomington Herald-Times
“A first-class Mozartean… an extraordinarily communicative player capable of great range and technical finesse… adding a dash of wit and humor along with the speedy fingerwork ”
--Melinda Bargreen, Seattle Times
“Guest artist for the night was the marvelous pianist, Byron Schenkman…. his virtuosity, mercurial range and power were all showcased beautifully throughout the evening ”
--Carolyn Gregory, Stylus Magazine, Boston
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