Igor Kennaway - biography
Igor’ Kennaway’s early career was spent in Germany where he held a number of conducting posts at the opera houses in Osnabrück, Mannheim and Mainz, with guest appearances at Koblenz and Darmstadt. After several years in Germany, he returned to live in England and there followed guest engagements at the Stuttgart Staatsoper, where he conducted “Martha” in the celebrated production by Loriot, “Tosca” with Galina Kalinina (from the Bolshoi Opera), Giorgio Lamberti, and Michael Sylvester, and “Andrea Chénier” with Gabriele Benackova, Giorgio Lamberti, Heinz Zednik and Paolo Gavanelli. In France he was engaged as Guest Conductor at the Opéra de Nice (France), appearing with new productions of “La Cenerentola” with Jennifer Larmore, Paolo Montarsolo and Rockwell Blake, and “Don Giovanni” with David Pittsinger and Waltraud Meier. It was also at the Opéra de Nice that he conducted the first performances in France of Mozart’s early opera “La finta semplice”.
Other guest appearances have included “Don Giovanni” at the Magdeburg Opera, “Don Carlos” at the Koblenz Opera and “Martha” at the Darmstadt Staatstheater. Over a period of three years he was Assistant Conductor to Sir Georg Solti in recordings for Decca in Vienna with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and many concerts with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Alte Oper Frankfurt.
Equally at home in the concert and oratorio repertoire, he has broadcast and recorded for the BBC on Radio 3 both as pianist and conductor, the latter with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Ulster Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra. He has also conducted the London Mozart Players, the City of London Sinfonia, the Chamber Orchestra of London, the Southern Pro Musica Orchestra and the London Concert Orchestra. Overseas, he has conducted concerts and recorded broadcasts for the major radio networks in Germany, Italy, Ireland and Iceland with the Magdeburgische Philharmonie, the Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau, (under the auspices of the German Council for Music), the Württembergisches Staatsorchester Stuttgart, the South West German Radio Orchestra for Südwestfunk, the RTE Concert Orchestra (at the National Concert Hall in Dublin), the Icelandic Symphony Orchestra, Reykyavik, “I Virtuosi di Santa Cecilia” (Rome), the South West Florida Symphony Orchestra and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta.
In England he has worked at Kent Opera and the English National Opera. His performances at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester of Vaughan Williams’ rarely staged opera “The Pilgrim’s Progress” attracted much attention in the national press. The CDs of these live performances were released to further critical acclaim.
In Germany, he worked for five years at the annual Bayreuther Festspiele, firstly as Assistant Chorus Master of the Bayreuther Festspielchor and then as Musical Assistant to Daniel Barenboim for the “Ring des Nibelungen”, working as well with James Levine and Giuseppe Sinopoli. He also appeared at the Darmstadt Festival of New Music, the Wiesbadener Maifestspiele, and the Ludwigsburger Schloßfestspiele.
He has taken part several times at the Wexford Opera Festival in Ireland, both as Music Director and Recitalist. For the Rovereto Mozart Festival (Italy), he conducted the concluding Opera Gala with Giuseppe Taddei, Eva Mei and Alexandrina Pendaschanska in the 18th century Opera House televised for the Italian television network RAI.
As pianist, he has worked and performed with many distinguished singers, most notably with Sir Peter Pears, John Shirley-Quirk, (in live broadcast concert from Pebble Mill for Radio 3), Edith Mathis and Linda Finnie. With the baritone Richard Jackson he had a long partnership, giving recitals throughout England. Their CD World Premiere recording of Bernard Steven’s song cycle “The True Dark” was released on the Albany label and was selected by the BBC Music Magazine as one of the CDs of the Year 2002. He has also given recitals with the baritone Graham Trew, the mezzo Fiona Kimm and the cellist Richard Tunnicliffe.
As Vocal Coach, he has worked closely with many eminent singers including Sir Peter Pears, Pierre Bernac, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Dame Kiri te Kanawa, Frederica von Stade, Sir John Tomlinson, Graham Clark, Gabriele Schnaut, Waltraut Meyer, and Dame Anne Evans.
Following the success of his conducting of “The Pilgrim’s Progress”, he was appointed by the Ralph Vaughan Williams Estate and Ursula Vaughan Williams to edit the unpublished manuscript of the complete incidental music to Aristophanes’ play “The Wasps” written by Vaughan Williams in 1909. Faber Music has now produced a performing edition based on his editorial work, recorded by Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé Orchestra.
In addition to operatic and orchestral work as a conductor, he has also conducted many ballets during his career in Germany, most notably working with Marcia Haydee and the Cranko Ballet at the Stuttgart State Opera. He is also on the Advisory Board of the Masterpiece Dance Theater, Los Angeles.
Recent engagements include accompanying lieder recitals throughout the UK, conducting the Concert Orchestra of London and the Southern Pro Arte Orchestra for several Opera Gala concerts, a concert tour with the “Give” ensemble (with Matthew Barley) to Malta under the auspices of the British Council, and was Music Director for a new touring production of Don Giovanni directed by Caroline Sharman.
In addition to his performing career, he has taught at many music institutions including the Royal Northern College of Music, the Royal Academy of Music, the Royal College of Music, the London College of Music – Thames Valley University, the Birmingham Conservatoire- University of Central England, the Music Faculty of Cambridge University, Sidney Sussex College Cambridge, the Frankfurter Hochschule für Musik and the Hong Kong Academy for the Performing Arts. During his years in Germany he was Head of the Opera School and Conductor of the Symphony Orchestra at the Mainz Peter-Cornelius-Konservatorium and Head of the Chamber Music and Lieder Classes at the Darmstadt Akademie für Tonkunst.
Following the success of the 2009 staged version of ‘Alice in Wonderland’ for which he was the Music Director, he will return to The New Theatre Royal Portsmouth at the invitation of their Director, Caroline Sharman in November 2010 as Musical Director for their new forthcoming stage version of Robert Louis Stevenson’s classic ‘Treasure Island’ for which he has also collaborated in composing the incidental music.
Igor Kennaway was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 1988
2010
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A Foundation Scholar of Pembroke College Cambridge, Igor Kennaway graduated in History and subsequently studied conducting, piano, cello, composition and accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music in London where he was awarded numerous prizes and scholarships from the Ralph Vaughan Williams Trust, the Ludgate Trust and the Royal Academy of Music. Further private studies including composition and analysis with Benjamin Frankel, Buxton Orr and Nadia Boulanger, accompanying with Geoffrey Parsons, orchestral conducting with Sir Adrian Boult, Sir Charles Groves and Sir Reginald Goodall and choral conducting with Laszlo Heltay were concluded with the Conducting Course Diploma at the Salzburg “Mozarteum” funded by a scholarship from the Austrian Government.
