An Evening with Stars: Violinist Alexi Kenney and Pianist Amy Yang
January 25, 2025 @ 7:00 pm
6:15pm Bubbles, 7pm Performance
- Witold Lutosławski – Partita
- Clara Schumann – Romances, Op. 22
- Arvo Pärt – Fratres
- George Enescu – Sonata No. 3 in A Minor
One of the foremost violinists of our time, Palo Alto native Alexi Kenney is equally at home creating experimental programs and commissioning new works, soloing with major orchestras around the world, and collaborating with celebrated musicians. Together with powerhouse pianist Amy Yang these world-class artists present a varied program in the intimate confines and exquisite acoustics of our own Portola Valley Town Center.
Described in concert by The New York Times as “a spellbinding, thoroughly honest performance that revealed his architect’s eye for structure and space and a tone that ranges from the achingly fragile to full-bodied robustness”, violinist Alexi Kenney is forging a career that defies categorization, following his interests, intuition, and heart. He is equally at home creating experimental programs and commissioning new works, soloing with major orchestras around the world, and collaborating with some of the most celebrated musicians of our time. Alexi is the recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award. Outside of music, Alexi enjoys hojicha, modernist design and architecture, baking for friends, and walking for miles on end in whichever city he finds himself, listening to podcasts, and Bach on repeat.
A “jaw-dropping pianist who steals the show…with effortless finesse” (Washington Post), pianist Amy Yang aspires to affirm connections between the arts and our inner humanity through her committed expressions of music and leadership on and off stage. Ms. Yang is an alumna of the Curtis Institute of Music, the Juilliard School, and the Yale School of Music, where she received the Parisot Award for Outstanding Pianist and the Alumni Association Prize. When not serving the various keyboards related to her roles, her intentionally incognito presence may be revealed by a quivering Micron pen as she sketches from the back of concert halls. The work of a lifetime is where she hopes to question, explore, and linger.