Adam Kent

Adam Kent has performed in recital, as soloist with orchestra, and in chamber music throughout the United States, Spain, Switzerland, and South America. A winner of the American Pianists Association Fellowship and Simone Belsky Music Awards, Dr. Kent also received top prizes in the Thomas Richner, the Juilliard Concerto, and the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin Competitions and is a recipient of the Arthur Rubinstein Prize and the Harold Bauer Award. Dr. Kent made his New York recital debut at Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall in 1989 and has been featured on radio stations WQXR, WNYC, and WFUV. Chamber music has been an important part of Dr. Kent’s concert life, most recently with the Damocles Trio, which he co-founded in 1996 with violinist Airi Yoshioka and cellist Sibylle Johner.

The group has performed both in the United States and abroad, appearing locally at Alice Tully Hall, Merkin Concert Hall, and BargeMusic. The ensemble’s recording of Joaquin Turina’s complete piano trios and quartet with Emerson Quartet violist Lawrence Dutton and a 2-cd set of trios from Brazil are available on Claves Records. Spanish music has been a specialty of Dr. Kent’s, whose endeavors on behalf of this repertory have been supported by the Spanish Ministry for Education and Culture, the Spanish Consulate, the Foundation for Iberian Music at the CUNY Graduate Center, Instituto Cervantes, and the King Juan Carlos I of Spain Center at NYU. Dr. Kent has offered numerous programs of Spanish and Latin-American piano and chamber music as well as bi-lingual lecture/recitals throughout the US and Spain and has served as Director of Cultural Outreach for the Burgos International Music Festival since 2006.

A performance of Book I of Albéniz’s Iberia suite was praised in the Indianapolis Star as “Albénizian to the core…his suave legato touch wedded to a tone with an Old World patina about it,” and Excelsior of Mexico City enthused about a recent all-Spanish recital, “Adam Kent brought not only magnificent technical ability to the music, but managed to go beyond the printed page, delving into the essence of what the composer sought to express.”

His critically acclaimed recording of the complete solo piano music of Ernesto Halffter is available on Bridge Records, and his writings on the music of Spain have appeared in Music in Art and Clavier magazines. Dr. Kent received a D.M.A. from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Jerome Lowenthal and served as an adjunct professor. He holds B.M. and M.M. degrees from Manhattan School of Music, where he worked with Solomon Mikowsky. Dr. Kent is currently on the Piano Faculties of Brooklyn College and New Jersey City University. He is widely requested as an adjudicator in numerous piano competitions, and his students have been prizewinners in the Manhattan School of Music Precollege Division, the Brooklyn College Concerto, the Kosciuszko Foundation Chopin, and the New York International Piano Competitions, among others.

Manhattan School of Music Precollege faculty since 1984.