About this Artist

Pianist KEVIN FITZ-GERALD enjoys a versatile performing career as recitalist, orchestra soloist, and chamber musician. His performances have garnered international acclaim and he has been recognized for his “hypnotically powerful and precise” pianism and “dynamic and distinguished” interpretations. His concert tours and performances have taken place in major concert halls, universities, and concert organizations throughout the United States, Canada, Japan, China, Korea, Australia, Mexico, South America, the Mediterranean, and the Caribbean. Notable venues include Carnegie Recital Hall (New York), the Mormon Tabernacle (Utah), Walt Disney Concert Hall (Los Angeles), National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Roy Thompson Hall (Toronto), Place des Arts (Montreal), Izumi Hall (Osaka), Suntory Hall (Tokyo), National Gallery (Kingston), and Town Hall (Melbourne). He has appeared with several Canadian and American orchestras, including the Toronto Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Canadian Chamber Orchestra, CBC Radio Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic, Los Angeles Camerata, Utah Chamber Orchestra, and the Mormon Tabernacle Orchestra at Temple Square. Recent orchestral performances have included concertos by Dvořák, Mozart, Beethoven, Prokofiev, Mendelssohn, Balakirev, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Berg, and Scharwenka.

Fitz-Gerald’s concerts have frequently been recorded for local, national, and international radio, and television networks in Canada, the U.S., South America, France, Japan, China, Korea, and Australia. His CD recordings can be found on the Summit, Quatro Corde, AFCM, Centaur, GM, Yamaha PianoSoft, and Ivory Classics records labels. In constant demand as a chamber musician, he has collaborated with internationally renowned artists such as Hagai Shaham, Patrick Gallois, Steven Isserlis, Anne Akiko Meyers, Richard Stoltzman, Alan Civil, Camilla Wicks, Midori, Eudice Shapiro, Milton Thomas, Karen Tuttle, Donald McInnes, and Ronald Leonard, and with the Bartók, St. Petersburg, and St. Lawrence string quartets.

For many years, Fitz-Gerald was studio pianist in summer programs for some of the leading artist teachers of our time, including William Primrose, Lillian Fuchs, Zara Nelsova, Janos Starker, Tsuyoshi Tsutsumi, Zoltan Szekely, Lorand Fenyves, and Marcel Moyse. He regularly performs two-piano and four-hand recitals with Bernadene Blaha, appearing at prestigious festivals, conventions, music teacher’s symposiums, and concert venues throughout North America, South America, Europe, and Asia. The Blaha/Fitz-Gerald Duo has performed extensively throughout Canada under the auspices of the Piano Six program, the Canada Council Touring Office, and the Cross Country Classics program.

Fitz-Gerald also enjoys an international reputation as a teacher, presenting masterclasses and lecture-symposiums throughout the world. His students have been prize-winners in many major piano and chamber music competitions, including the Rubinstein International Piano Competition, Vilna International Piano Competition, IBLA International Piano Competition, American Orff-Schulwerke International Competition, ARD International Piano Competition, the Music Teachers National Association national competition, Los Angeles Liszt International Piano Competition, Jean Françaix International Competition, Canadian National Music Competition, and the Coleman National Chamber Music Competition.

Today, his students can be found winning competitions, performing, recording, and teaching at many of the finest conservatories and universities throughout the world. In addition to his position as Professor of Piano Performance and Collaborative Arts at the USC Thornton School of Music, Fitz-Gerald is also a regular visiting artist teacher at the Banff School of Fine Arts, a frequent masterclass teacher at the Colburn School for the Performing Arts in Los Angeles and the Aria International Summer Institute in Indiana, as well as visiting faculty at many other national and international music festivals and institutions throughout North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Born in Kelowna, British Columbia, Fitz-Gerald was a full scholarship student at the Victoria Conservatory of Music, the Banff Centre School of Fine Arts, and the Royal Conservatory of Music in Toronto, where his principal teachers were Marek Jablonski, Robin Wood, and Alma Brock-Smith. In addition, he has worked extensively with Menahem Pressler, John Perry, Gyorgy Sebok, and Leon Fleisher. He has won several prestigious competitions, grants and awards, including the Du Maurier Search for the Stars, CBC National Radio Auditions, and the Young Artists’ National Piano Competition.