Music by Edvard Grieg, Stefano Donaudy, Carlos Guastavino, George Gershwin, Earl Zindars, and more.
Helene Zindarsian is admired for a voice that “goes straight to the heart of the listener." A native San Franciscan, she made her professional debut as the soprano soloist in Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the San Francisco Ballet Company after being “discovered” in Italy during an impromptu performance in a Sienese palazzo.
Helene Zindarsian & Kerrilyn Renshaw at the Maybeck
Sunday, September 15, 2019 at 3:00pm
This concert is $20 General Admission/$10 Students
Helene Zindarsian is admired for a voice that “goes straight to the heart of the listener”. A native San Franciscan, she made her professional debut as the soprano soloist in Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn with the San Francisco Ballet Company after being “discovered” in Italy during an impromptu performance in a Sienese palazzo.
A frequent soloist with Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Helene has been featured in Campra’s Requiem, Purcell’s Birthday Ode to Queen Mary, Rameau’s Grand Motet, Handel’s Samson, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Rosenmüller’s Magnificat, Vivaldi’s Gloria, Purcell’s Dioclesian, Cozzolani’s Dixit Dominus, and Beethoven’s Choral Fantasia. Recent highlights include Vaughan Williams’s Dona Nobis Pacem and Mozart’s Requiem with the Marin Symphony, and Haydn’s The Seasons and Monteverdi’s Vespers of 1610 with Marin Oratorio. Other favorite solo appearances include Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass, Vaughan Williams’s Serenade to Music, and Faure’s Requiem with Contra Costa Chorale, as well as “Venus” in John Blow’s Venus and Adonis, and the “First Witch” in Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas with Marin Baroque.
Beyond the Bay Area, she is also familiar to audiences in Chicago, where she has performed Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été with the Park Ridge Civic Orchestra, a group with whom she earned acclaim for her interpretation of Strauss’s Four Last Songs on a prior tour. As a result of these performances, she received a grant to produce the album “Janabar”, a collection of Armenian liturgical hymns, some of which date to the 5th Century. The project received its international debut in a solo concert presented by Filarmonica Laudamo in Messina, Italy, where she has gradually established herself as a regular guest artist.
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Pianist Kerrilyn Renshaw has been on the faculty of the San Francisco Conservatory of Music since 1980 in various roles: collegiate opera coach and accompanist, Pre College Division chamber music faculty, Musicianship instructor, and as Piano Ensembles Coordinator for SFCM Summer Music West. She has also been Musicianship/Composition Instructor and chamber music faculty at the Crowden Music Center since 2005. Kerrilyn founded Piano Partners summer program at Crowden in 2015, was director for three years, and remains on the faculty.
Her piano studies included graduate studies with Mack McCray at SFCM, Aube Tzerko in Los Angeles, and master classes with Leon Fleisher.
Having performed throughout the Bay Area and widely in the United States, Ms. Renshaw played at Carnegie Hall as pianist with mezzo soprano Sally Munro and with the Villa Sinfonia Chamber Orchestra.
Kerrilyn was piano soloist with the San Francisco Symphony in “Petrushka” during the 100th Anniversary Stravinsky Festival. She has been accompanist for vocal soloists of the LA Philharmonic, the San Francisco Symphony, and the San Francisco Opera. Ms. Renshaw has worked with conductors Michael Tilson Thomas, Neeme Jarvi, Roger Norrington, and Edo de Waart, and with composers John Adams and Steve Reich.
For many years, Kerrilyn was featured in concerts as classical piano soloist aboard World Explorer Cruises, and as a guest chamber music artist with Royal Viking Cruises. As concerto soloist Kerrilyn has appeared with orchestras such as the Santa Barbara Symphony, the Prometheus Orchestra, the Redlands Symphony, and the Palo Alto Symphony. A prizewinner in many regional and state competitions, she was also a finalist in the Gina Bachauer International Piano Competition.
Ms. Renshaw has recorded solo piano CDs with Sugo Records – now featured on iTunes , Spotify, and other music media sources - and with soprano Helene Zindarsian.