It may have been a touch of sibling rivalry that launched Kevin Kenner, 27, toward international success as a pianist.
Kenner, a returned missionary, shared third prize and the bronze medal awarded at the Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in June and July. He was the highest-ranking U.S. piano competitor at the prestigious competition. He also won the Rachmaninoff Prize at the competition amounting to 1,000 rubles (about $1,000).Kevin was 5 years old when he first began to play the piano, according to his parents, Park and Juanita Kenner of the Imperial Beach Ward, Chula Vista California Stake.
"It was strictly his decision," Sister Kenner told the Church News. "His sister had started lessons, and he told me, 'Mom, I want to play, too.'"
She called her daughter's teacher to ask if she would take her son on as a student also.
"I told her he was bugging me to death," she recalled. "I said, 'His sister gets to ride the yellow school bus and go horseback riding, and if there is one more thing she gets to do that he doesn't, I'll be a basket case.'"
The teacher laughed and said it would be no problem.
Sister Kenner thought her son's interest in the piano would last until summer, when he saw the other children outside playing. She was wrong.
Kevin turned out to be a natural. He would play duets with his teacher as they sat at two grand pianos, and would beg for the chance to play her more complicated part.
Bach was his favorite composer at first, his mother recalled. The composer's fugues and interwoven melodies were compatible with the youngster's small hands. As he grew, he developed an interest in Chopin and other composers of the Romantic period.
Music remained his chief pursuit until he reached missionary age. Taking 18 months off - the length of service for full-time missions at that time - is considered the death blow to the career of a performing artist at that early age, Sister Kenner said.
"I told him: `Son, I can't tell you to go and I can't tell you not to go. You have to make that decision yourself.' "
He dropped out of college (He had been studying at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, Md., and also had spent a year at BYU.) and answered a call to serve in the Austria Vienna Mission.
"It's important when you're given a gift to be willing to give it up or you begin to covet it, become possessive of it," he reflected in an interview with the Fort Worth (Texas) Star Telegram in 1989 when he competed in the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition.
"I've always believed that my best performances are attuned to spiritual things. I've felt like I've been getting a lot of help - from a divine source. It's a gift, and it's important to recognize the origin of that gift."
The mission did not end his musical career. Today he studies under a German grant at the Hanover Hochschule while he teaches at the Salzburg Mozarteum in Austria.
Sister Kenner said he always takes time out to attend Church services on Sunday as often as possible.
"The first thing he does when he gets to a city is to call the local bishop and get himself a ride to Church on Sunday," she said.
"He plays a lot for the Church, too. When he won the Chopin competition in New York City, part of the prize was the opportunity to perform for a week in Poland. He stayed over an extra day to play for the saints in Warsaw. Then, he flew to Vienna, his old mission, and played for a packed house of Church members. I told him, `Son, there aren't very many returned missionaries who have the opportunity to come back in a blaze of glory and perform.' He said he knew that."
Following his performance in Austria, he played for Church members in Budapest, Hungary, and in Yugolavia. The performances for the Church members were at his own expense, Sister Kenner said.
It was during his Poland tour that Kenner met his bride-to-be. A pianist herself studying at the Warsaw Conservatory, Sonia Dembinska had come to hear him play. They got acquainted, and she also attended the recital he put on for Church members.
She wanted to know about the Church. His schedule did not allow him time to explain much, but he did tell her how to reach the missionaries.
No missionary contacts resulted from that incident, but the two pianists began corresponding. At a subsequent meeting in Vienna, Kenner put her in touch with missionaries in Poland. She took the lessons and then flew to Hanover, where Kevin baptized her.
They are to be married on Aug. 4.
