Kenny Broberg

International award winning pianist performs

The winner of this year’s Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition. Kenny Broberg, will be returning to Hastings this October after a highly successful summer spent in his native America. Julian Norridge writes.

In June Broberg was awarded the Silver Medal in the Fifteenth Van Cliburn International Piano Competition in Fort Worth Texas, the most prestigious piano competition in the United States. He was beaten to the Gold Medal by Yekwon Sunwoo from South Korea, who was runner up in the Hastings competition in 2014.

This confirms that the Hastings event is now a major player in the world of international piano competitions.

“The achievements of our competitors in The Cliburn is proof of what we have known for some time,” said Professor Frank Wibaut, the Artistic Director of the Hastings competition. “We are now attracting pianists of world class calibre.

“That they come to our town to perform with one of the world’s top orchestras is a measure of how far the competition has grown in such a very short time. It also means we now have a roster of finalists who are very keen to come back and perform for us locally, giving the region access to the very best young concert pianists.”

On 13 October Broberg will be at St Mary In The Castle in Hastings for the season’s opening concert of the Hastings Philharmonic Orchestra, when he’ll be performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 5. The concert begins at 7pm. Tickets are available from Hastings Philharmonic.

Then two days later, on 15 October, he will be giving the Autumn Prizewinners’ Recital in the Recital Room Courtyard at Fairlight Hall, where he’ll be playing Cesar Franck-Bauer’s Prelude, Fugue and Variation in B minor, Johann Sebastian Bach’s Toccata in C minor and Samuel Barber’s Sonata for piano in E flat. After an intermission, he will play Franz Liszt’s Sonata in B minor.

Tickets are £15 and sales support the Hasting International Piano Concerto Competition. They are available from Hastings Concerto Competition or from Hastings Tourist Information Centre, Muriel Matters House in Breeds Place, 01424 451111.

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