Sylvia Kersenbaum

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sylvia Kersenbaum began her musical training with her mother. Soon afterward, she became a pupil of the distinguished teacher, Vincent Scaramuzza. She holds degrees in performance, pedagogy, and composition from the National Conservatory in Buenos Aires and Artists Diplomas from both the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome and the Accademia Chigiana, Siena.

Sylvia has been a professor of piano at WKU since 1976. During her time at WKU, she collaborated on many occasions over two decades with the opera theatre programs and as harpist with The Symphony. Since retiring, she has been awarded the title of Professor Emerita. Her performances of Beethoven’s thirty-two piano sonatas on campus and abroad were highly acclaimed. In 1990, she was awarded Honorary Membership of the American Beethoven Society and the WKU Faculty Award for Research and Creativity. As a composer, Kersenbaum wrote two suites for a cappella choir, a cantata for soprano, tenor, choir and orchestra, and the music for Edgar Allan Poe’s, “The Masque of the Red Death,” which premiered as a ballet in October 2001 at the Capitol Theatre in collaboration with the WKU Department of Theatre and Dance.

She has appeared in recitals and as soloist with orchestras throughout Europe, the Far East, and North and South America. Noted orchestras include the London Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Munchen Philharmoniker, Bayerische Staatskapelle, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the San Francisco Symphony, and the Louisville Orchestra, and with conductors Wolfgang Sawallisch, Jean Martinon, Gunter Herbig, Leopold Hager, Garcia Navarro and Lawrence Leighton Smith. Her recordings for the EMI-Angel label have won major international press acclaim. Her version of Tchaikovsky’s Concerto Op. 44 under Jean Martinon was reissued on CD Sg EMI Europe, and Liszt Hexameron included her in their series 100 Virtuosi of the 20th Century. She has also been invited to present Masterclasses at Belmont University, Northwestern University, University of Louisville, University of Massachusetts, and the Beethoven Conservatory in Buenos Aires.

To honor her prolific work at WKU and beyond, the WKU student fraternity Delta Omicron established the Sylvia Kersenbaum Music Scholarship Fund in 2002. Since awarding in 2005, it has helped WKU music students pursue their academic and musical goals. Through this fund, Sylvia’s legacy on the Hill lives on in perpetuity.