Sylvia Kersenbaum

Sylvia Haydée Kersenbaum is an Argentine pianist, composer and teacher, recognized for, among other things, performing the complete cycle of 32 Beethoven Piano Sonatas twice (1989-1990 and 2003-2004, and her music for the ballet The Masque of the Red Death, based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe.

Life

Silvia Kersenbaum was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 27 December 1945, to an Austrian father and Italian mother.^[1] She began her musical studies at four years of age with her mother, beginning to play the piano before her feet could reach the pedals.^[2] Afterwards she studied with Angélica C. de Roldan and finally in the National Conservatoire of Music of Buenos Aires with the most renowned piano teacher in Argentina: Vincenzo Scaramuzza. She had her debut in Buenos Aires in 1958 with the concert for piano and orchestra n.º 1 of Beethoven receiving high acclaim.^[3] In 1966 she was awarded a scholarship by the Italian Government to study at the National Academy of Santa Cecilia of Rome, where she worked under the tutelage of Carlo Zecchi. She also studied at the Accademia Musicale Chigiana in Siena and later with Nikita Magaloff in Geneva.

The newspaper Unterhaltungs Blätter of Zürich said of her: "It is remarkable the number of young and qualified Argentine artists in recent years who conquered the European public. After Argerich, Gelber, Barenboin, you must add the name of Sylvia Kersenbaum, who in her debut in Zurich was a resounding success."^[4]

She has toured in the Far East, Europe, New Zealand, the United States and Mexico. She has recorded music of Beethoven, Chopin, Brahms, Paganini, Tchaikovsky, Liszt, Weber, Mendelssohn, Schubert, Granados, Glinka, Schumann, Franck, Scriabin, Berg, Mozart, Ginastera, Rachmaninoff, Bach, Grieg, Dohnányi, Falla, Gershwin, Hindemith, Haydn, Janáček, Piazzolla, Ravel and Strauss.

In 1976, she moved to Kentucky and joined the Department of Music at Western Kentucky University, where in 1990, she was awarded the top prize and serves as professor emerita.

She also spent over two decades as harpist of the Bowling Green Western Symphony Orchestra.

Work

As a composer her highlights include choral works (two suites for choir "a cappella" and a cantata for soprano, tenor, choir and orchestra), and music for the ballet "The Masque of the Red Death" based on a story by Edgar Allan Poe and released by the Capitol Arts Center of Bowling Green, Kentucky, in 2001.^[5]

She has written several transcriptions for piano, including the Bacchanal from Samson et Dalila by Saint-Saens, Träume by Richard Wagner, Cambalache by Santos Discépolo and Benediction of Dieu dans the Solitude by Franz Liszt for cello and piano.

Prizes and Recognitions

• Honorary member of the American Beethoven Society after playing the cycle of the 32 Beethoven sonatas in 1990.
• Maximum Award of the Western Kentucky University, in 1990 (WKU Faculty Award for Research and Creativity). In 2003, the University instituted a scholarship in her honor which bears her name.
• Record of the Year (Records & Recordings).
• In 1999 she obtained the Konex Award for piano and received the Diploma to the Merit beside Martha Argerich, Bruno Leonardo Gelber, Nelson Goerner and Manuel Rego.^[6] She was recognized as the most excellent interpreter of the last decade.
• Distinction as " Best Instrumental Performer", given by the Music Critics Association of Argentina in 2004.
• She was included in the collection "100 Virtuosi of the 20th Century" by EMI for her version of the Hexameron of Liszt.

References