Yaroslav Senyshyn
SHORT BIO:
Canadian born pianist of Ukrainian ancestry, Yaroslav ('Slava') Senyshyn, Steinway Artist, was one of two prize pupils (along with the Canadian composer and pianist, Larysa Kuzmenko) of the late and great Antonina Yaroshevich. Yaroshevich was a contemporary of Vladimir Horowitz at the Kiev Conservatory. Both Horowitz and Yaroshevich studied with the famous pedagogue Felix Blumenfeld. Thus the grand tradition of piano playing was passed on and imparted to Yaroslav Senyshyn. Senyshyn is now one of the very few exponents of this style of playing the piano.
Georgetown University Radio featured Senyshyn in a documentary program about great Canadian pianists, including Glenn Gould, Angela Hewitt, Louis Lortie and Anton Kuerti. In addition to his concert activities, Dr. Senyshyn is Professor of Music and Moral Philosophy at Simon Fraser University. He also performs with his wife, Professor and Dr. Susan O’Neill, the internationally acclaimed scholar, President-Elect of the International Society for Music Education (ISME) and virtuoso flautist. They are both currently recording artists for Albany Records, New York.
Senyshyn is described as a pianist of "enormous power" and "sophistication" (The Washington Post) and for his “originality” (The New York Times). “When he wishes, he’s capable of a truly colossal sound…He can also play with great delicacy and refinement… of a beguiling, other-worldly atmosphere…. music masterfully performed” (Robert Schulspaer, Fanfare). “Senyshyn is a pianist of real sensitivity… the ideal interpreter, fearlessly delivering clusters one moment, proffering reflective balm the next… This really is beautiful playing, painterly in its ability to secure and extend an atmosphere…. There is a luminosity here that is rarely heard (Colin Clarke, Fanfare).