Kent Kennan

Kent Wheeler Kennan (born April 18, 1913 in Milwaukee , Wisconsin , † November 1, 2003 in Austin , Texas ) was an American composer and music teacher .

Life

Kennan began taking piano lessons from the age of six, soon followed by lessons in organ and flute. He studied music first at the University of Michigan , then at the Eastman School of Music , where he graduated in composition and music theory. In 1936 he was awarded the prestigious Prix de Rome award, which allowed him a three-year period of study in Rome. His teacher there was Ildebrando Pizzetti . He then taught temporarily at Kent State University .

Interrupted only by military service and a brief professorship at Ohio State University in the 1950s, Kennan was a faculty member at the University of Texas at Austin for over 40 years . In 1983 he retired.

Kennan's half-brother was the historian and diplomat George F. Kennan .

plant

Kennan's catalog of works includes orchestral works, chamber music and vocal compositions. One of his best-known works is Night Soliloquy for flute and strings (1936), which conductors such as Toscanini , Ormandy and Stokowski included. Often listed were e.g. B. also his Sonata for Trumpet and Piano, the Three Pieces for Orchestra or the Three Piano Preludes .

After 1956, Kennan hardly composed any more and shifted the focus to his educational work. His two books "The Technique of Orchestration" (1952) and "Counterpoint" (1959) have been reprinted several times.

literature

• CD booklet Mercury 434 307-2 (including Kennan: Three Pieces for Orchestra , Howard Hanson, Eastman-Rochester Orchestra)

Web links

• Works by and about Kent Kennan in the catalog of the German National Library
• Vita, University of Texas (engl.)
• Findings in The Independent November 5, 2003 (Engl.)