Hot From The Oven

Violinist Kenney heats up Sibelius with SoNA

“He was also one of the greatest orchestrators in history,” violinst Alexi Kenney, left, says of composer Jean
Sibelius. “He really felt the orchestra has such a tremendous range and register, and he loved using dark sounds.”
“He was also one of the greatest orchestrators in history,” violinst Alexi Kenney, left, says of composer Jean Sibelius. “He really felt the orchestra has such a tremendous range and register, and he loved using dark sounds.”

Violinist Alexi Kenney obviously takes his music very seriously. He's been playing since he was 4 years old and has his own symphony of awards: He's the recipient of a 2016 Avery Fisher Career Grant; winner of the 2013 Concert Artists Guild Competition, which led to a recital at Carnegie Hall; winner of top prizes at the Yehudi Menuhin International Competition (2012), the Mondavi Center Competition (2010), and the 2013 Kronberg Academy master classes. And he was praised by Strings magazine for his "beautiful, aching tone" for a performance of the Sibelius Concerto with the China Philharmonic Orchestra in Beijing during the Menuhin Competition.

photo

COURTESY PHOTO

Maestro Paul Haas will conduct Kenney’s March 4 performance with SoNA.

But ask Kenney about his other passions, and you'll hear the 23-year-old in his voice. He's just moved from Boston to New York, and he's happily eating his way across town.

FAQ

SoNA

Masterworks II

WHEN — 7:30 p.m. March 4

WHERE — Walton Arts Center in Fayetteville

COST — $30-$52

INFO — 443-5600

BONUS — Also on the program are Arvo Part’s Fratres for strings and percussion, followed by Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5.

"I'm big into food, so I'm really excited about trying all the coffee shops and restaurants and having a lot of fun in the city," he says enthusiastically. "I loved visual art when I was younger, and even though me actually creating sculpture kind of fell by the wayside, I love going to museums."

He also loves television -- "I watch way too much of it" -- and is currently "really into 'Homeland,' and 'Game of Thrones' is about to start back up."

But then, he reveals heart. He loves the Netflix original series "Chef's Table," because he loves to cook as well as eat.

"I'm not a fantastic chef, but I'm good at baking," Kenney says, enthusiasm radiant in his voice. "I was in Paris a couple months ago, and I picked up a set of copper cannele molds -- it's a small baked custard flavored with vanilla bean and a little bit of rum. You have to coat the inside of the pan with a mixture of bee's wax and butter -- you season the pan that way. Then you put in the batter and let it cook. You have to watch it -- take it out every 20 minutes or so and let it cool a bit. Properly done, it has this incredibly dark brown, crunchy crust on the outside, and it's incredibly creamy on the inside. ..."

That 20 minutes is less time than Kenney will spend playing March 4 with the Symphony of Northwest Arkansas. Jean Sibelius' 1904 Violin Concerto runs about 28 minutes and, according to Kenney, helped the Finnish composer create a "nationalistic sound" for his country just as Antonin Dvorak did for Czechoslovakia.

"It's crucial, obviously, to know the time period a composer is writing in," says Kenney. "But for me, it's kind of all in the music. Yes, you can learn about Sibelius and learn that he was a deeply depressive person -- just kind of a sad story -- but in a sense, all of that emotion he was feeling, you can feel already in the music. You play through it, and it's at once this deeply passionate, romantic piece, but you can tell he was a deeply troubled person."

Stepping out on stage to play doesn't scare Kenney anymore -- if it ever did.

"It's not a bad thing to feel nervous or a little on edge; it makes it feel like a special occasion," he says. "But sometimes I think the best performances I give are the ones when I feel friendly towards the audience -- where there's real communication back and forth. If you just think, 'Oh, I'm here to play chamber music with this orchestra to discover this amazing piece together, to tell a story,' then it's the best.

"For me, starting out at young age, I enjoyed just playing. It was never about the depth of the music when I was 4, because all you're playing is 'Twinkle Twinkle.' When I got into my teenage years, music became more of an outlet for my emotions," he adds. "I'm not the most outwardly expressive person, so music kind of took over that role in my personal life. It was something I could relate to more than anything else. As I got older, it just became such a central part of my life. And here we are today."

NAN What's Up on 02/24/2017

Upcoming Events