An American Pianist opens the Medina Festival
September 7 (Tunis)- Thomas Rosenkranz, a world famous American Pianist was invited by the American Embassy in Tunis to open the 26th edition of the Medina Festival, held every year during the month of Ramadan.
Pianist Thomas Rosenkranz has charted a career that breaks through the conventional boundaries of solo piano, chamber music, and improvisation.
Described as “in a league all his own” by the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, Rosenkranz was awarded the Classical Fellowship Award in 2003 from the American Pianists Association. Since then he has performed throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Africa including performances at Lincoln Center (New York), Kennedy Center (D.C.), Hilbert Circle Theatre (Indianapolis), Poly Theatre (Beijing), National Concert Hall (Shanghai), L'Acropolium (Carthage), and Theatre de la Ville (Tunis).
He has performed as soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony, the National Orchestra of Beirut, and was the featured soloist with the Oberlin Orchestra’s tour of China in 2006. He has twice been named an Artist Ambassador sponsored by the State Department of the United States, touring North Africa and the Middle East. In addition to his work in classical music, Mr. Rosenkranz continues to be involved in a variety of cross-cultural projects.
For several years he was the pianist for the Tunis based group, Le Minaret et la Tour consisting of Tunisian and Western musicians. This group recently toured Sicily with the National Sicilian Orchestra before traveling to Tunisia to headline the International Festival of Carthage.
His 2007- 2008 season includes solo and chamber music concerts in Japan, Taiwan, Tunisia, and Italy and in the U.S. at The Eastman School, Northwestern University, and Princeton University. He was a jury member for the 2007 Oberlin International Piano Competition. Mr. Rosenkranz is a graduate of the Oberlin Conservatory and the Eastman School of Music.
He studied with Robert Shannon, Nelita True, and Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen. He is currently a member of the Piano Faculty at Bowling Green University. He is the founder and Artistic Director of the Hawai‘i Institute for Contemporary Music and is artist-in-residence at the SoundSCAPE Festival in Italy.