Pianist Brendan Kinsella

Biography

Pianist Brendan Kinsella has performed widely throughout the United States, China, and Japan as a recitalist, chamber musician, and concerto soloist, appearing with conductors such as Xian Zhang, J.R. Cassidy, Mark Gibson, Gary Hill, and Robert Olson.  Mr. Kinsella began piano lessons at age 11 and made his concerto debut at 15 with the Kentucky Symphony.  Recently, he was a Fellow at the 2007 Music Academy of the West Festival in Santa Barbara, where he studied solo literature with Jerome Lowenthal, chamber music with the Takács Quartet, and was selected as the alternate in the Concerto Competition.  In 2005, he participated in the TCU-Van Cliburn Institute and worked under the direction of Christopher Elton and John Owings.  Mr. Kinsella has also appeared in solo and collaborative masterclasses taught by Peter Serkin, Frederic Rzewski, Nadja Salerno-Sonnenburg, and Susan Graham.

Currently, Mr. Kinsella is completing his Doctor of Musical Arts degree at the UMKC Conservatory of Music and studies with Robert Weirich.  While pursuing his degree at UMKC, he won the Concerto-Aria Competition in 2005, appeared as a soloist with the Conservatory Wind Symphony in 2006, won the Missouri MTNA Collegiate Young Artist Competition in 2006, and has performed numerous times as a collaborative pianist with faculty and graduate students.  Mr. Kinsella was born in Cincinnati, Ohio and earned his Bachelor of Music (cum laude) and Master of Music degrees from the University of Cincinnati-College Conservatory of Music as a pupil of Frank Weinstock and James Tocco, winning the undergraduate scholarship competition three times and the concerto competition in 1997.  He additionally studied chamber music and artsong with Kenneth Griffiths and Donna Loewy. 

Mr. Kinsella lives in Kansas City, where he maintains a private studio with his wife, Shoko, and collaborates frequently with area and guest musicians.  His current concert seasons includes collaboration in the Schoenberg Retrospective at UMKC, solo and lecture-recitals celebrating the Messiaen centennial in Kansas, Wisconsin, and Idaho, joint recitals with his wife in Ireland, and a performance of Samuel Barber’s Piano Concerto, op. 38 with the Jefferson City Symphony.