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Jonah Kim / Sean Kennard

Rachmaninoff ^ Barber Cello Sonatas

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Meet the Artists | Jonah Kim & Sean Kennard play Rachmaninoff & Barber
epk
Mercury Soul: Cathedral, Episode 2
Bach: The Chaconne - Julia Rowe & Jonah Kim
Beethoven Sonata Op. 53
Artists of Mercury Soul - Jonah and Julia
1 Rachmaninoff: Sonata in G minor for Cello and Piano Op. 19 / Lento  
2 Allegro  
3 Andante  
4 Allegro mosso  
5 Barber: Sonata for Violincello and Piano Op. 6 / Allefro  
6 Adagio  
7 Allegro  
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Cellist Jonah Kim and pianist Sean Kennard have been making music together since they were teenagers at the Curtis Institute of Music and together they have played almost every sonata in the standard repertoire. The Rachmaninoff Sonata and the Sonata by Samuel Barber hold a special place for them: The Rachmaninoff was the first sonata they worked on together, and Kim's teacher at Curtis was Orlando Cole, who premiered the Sonata with Barber himself at the piano. Both Sonatas shine as big, romantic works with broad, rhapsodic strokes and soaring melodies. Kim and Kennard give stunning performances, singling out these brilliant young performers as two of the best in their generation.

  • Jonah Kim and Sean Kennard discuss Barber / Rachmaninoff with 89.7WCPE
    Posted At: January 25, 2021

    Cellist Jonah Kim and pianist Sean Kennard have been making music together since they were teenagers at the Curtis Institute of Music and together they have played almost every sonata in the standard repertoire. The Rachmaninoff Sonata and the Sonata by Samuel Barber hold a special place for them: The Rachmaninoff was the first sonata they worked on together, and Kim's teacher at Curtis was Orlando C...

  • Jonah Kim & Sean Kennard discuss Rachmaninoff & Barber sonatas with VPM
    Posted At: December 19, 2020

    Mike Goldberg, Classical Music Host at Virginia's VPM Music writes.....Young artists Jonah Kim (cello) and Sean Kennard (piano) have been making music together since they were teenagers at the Curtis Institute of Music.  They have just released an album featuring the sonatas by Sergei Rachmaninoff and Samuel Barber. The Rachmaninoff was the first piece they worked on together, so the piece ...

  • Jonah Kim and Sean Kennard reunite to perform pieces from their youth / New Classical Tracks
    Posted At: November 25, 2020

    For cellist Jonah Kim and pianist Sean Kennard, studying at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia was like being at Hogwarts. They were mesmerized by the spells they could cast every time they learned some new flashy technique. Two decades later, they've grown into musical wizards, and they just released their debut recording. It features the Sergei Rachmaninoff's Sonata for Piano and Cel...

  • If you haven't listened much to classical music, listen to Jonah Kim, Sean Kennard new Barber - Rachmaninoff / 89.9KCRW - Rhythm Planet
    Posted At: November 10, 2020

    Although I'm primarily known as a world music and jazz aficionado, I have also loved classical music for a long time. I was a teenager when I first heard Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun and Van Cliburn's acclaim-winning performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto #1. I loved rhythm and blues and jazz, but this music spoke to me as well. If you haven't listened much to classical music, let me...

  • Jonah Kim & Sean Kennard go for broke and hold nothing in reserve on new Rachmaninoff - Barber set / San Francisco Classical Voice
    Posted At: November 2, 2020

    When cellist Jonah Kim and pianist Sean Kennard met at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music, they were both still in their teens. Their youth wasn't about to hold them back. The first piece they undertook together was Rachmaninoff's technically and musically daunting Sonata for Piano and Cello, Op. 19. The fruits of the team's early labor are on full display in a new Delos recording that pairs that p...

  • Jonah Kim - Sean Kennard: Barber / Rachmaninoff is 'anything but' a plain old sonata album / The Rehearsal Studio
    Posted At: October 8, 2020

    A few months ago Delos released what seems to be the debut album of the duo of cellist Jonah Kim and pianist Sean Kennard. The two of them met as teenagers at the Curtis Institute of Music, and the first major work they prepared was Sergei Rachmaninoff's Opus 19 sonata. Appropriately enough, they chose that sonata as the opening selection on their new album. However, my own interest was more inclined to ...

  • On Rachmaninov and Barber Sonatas, Jonah Kim and Sean Kennard balance their efforts with vibrancy, nuance, and power / GRAMOPHONE
    Posted At: October 7, 2020

    Sergey Rachmaninov and Samuel Barber were both twenty-somethings when they composed their only sonatas for cello and piano. These are works of young firebrands, full of emotional urgency and heightened instrumental challenges, which are met to striking effect in the performances offered on this new recording by the cellist Jonah Kim and pianist Sean Kennard. All the hallmarks of Rachmaninov's mat...

  • There's an abundance of lovely playing on Jonah Kim / Sean Kennard - Rachmaninoff ^ Barber Cello Sonatas / theWholeNote
    Posted At: October 2, 2020

    Cellist Johan Kim and pianist Sean Kennard were together as teenagers at the Curtis Institute and again at Juilliard. For Rachmaninoff and Barber Cello Sonatas, their first album on the Delos label, they have chosen Rachmaninoff's Cello Sonata Op.19 and Samuel Barber's Cello Sonata Op.6 (Delos DE 3574 naxosdirect.com/search/de+3574). The composers were both in their 20s when writing the works...

  • St. Ignatius Parish livestream, set to feature; Jonah Kim and Keisuke Nakagoshi in 'Meditations and Celebrations'
    Posted At: September 1, 2020

    San Francisco's St. Ignatius Parish, in an effort to keep us all spiritually close while we are physically apart, will livestream from St. Ignatius Church 24/7, in support of your devotionals, prayer, and comfort seeking in this uncertain time. This is where 10:00am Sunday Mass will be celebrated live each week; other worship opportunities are listed at our parish website, www.stignatiussf.org. S...

  • Jonah Kim & Sean Kennard give a moving and musically satisfying performance of the Rachmaninoff / theStrad
    Posted At: August 25, 2020

    Kim and Kennard met as teenagers at Philadelphia's Curtis Institute of Music, and had the privilege of being coached in Barber's Cello Sonata by Orlando Cole, who gave its first performance in 1933, and was described by Barber as ‘the physician at its birth'. With Barber having studied at Curtis himself and Rachmaninoff often having stayed next door to the institute, this made the progr...

  • Jonah Kim chats Barber & Rachmaninoff with IPR
    Posted At: August 14, 2020

    When cellist Jonah Kim was just 15 years old, Washington Post music critic Joseph McLellan called him "the next Yo-Yo Ma."  Kim is in his early 30s now, and he's carving out a path all his own. His new album, recorded with pianist Sean Kennard, features sonatas by Samuel Barber and Sergei Rachmaninoff. Kim and Kennard began playing together at the Curtis Institute about 20 years ago, in ...
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