Pianist Nina Kennedy Returns to the Concert Stage

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After a five-year pause due to the COVID pandemic, Nina Kennedy will be presenting concerts at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, and in Mexico City at the National Arts Center next month. In Mexico City she will be appearing as part of the 27th Festival Internacional de Piano En Blanco y Negro on Saturday, September 14th at 7:00 pm., presenting a recital of works by Ravel, Chopin, Schumann, de Falla, Lecuona, and African-American composers John W. Work III and R. Nathaniel Dett.


At Vanderbilt she will present the same program at the Blair School of Music in Turner Recital Hall on Thursday September 5th. She will also appear Sunday, September 8th at the First Baptist Church Capitol Hill as part of the Grandparents' Day celebration. She will also conduct a master class at Fisk University.

Praised by the New York Times as one of the great pianists of her generation, Nina Kennedy is a world-renowned concert pianist, orchestral conductor, award-winning filmmaker and author. She gave her first complete piano recital in Nashville at nine years old, and appeared as piano soloist with the Nashville Symphony playing Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue at age 13 before an audience of over 4,000 at Centennial Park, receiving a standing ovation. She was one of three selected from a field of 72 pianists who auditioned for study at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia. She holds a master's degree from the Juilliard School where she studied conducting with Leonard Bernstein. Kurt Masur acted as her conducting mentor during his tenure as music director with the New York Philharmonic and l'Orchestre National de France. For 12 years she lived and performed in Europe, residing in Amsterdam, Vienna, Cologne, and Paris.

Nina's first book of memoirs, Practicing for Love: A Memoir, is a Lambda Literary Award Finalist. Her second book of memoirs, Practice What You Preach, was published in 2022.

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