| “Twenty-five years
ago, two solo pianists -- a native Bostonian named James Anagnoson and
a native Torontonian named Leslie Kinton -- decided to team up for a series
of three concerts as a duo piano team. The rest, as the saying goes,
is history.
Long since recognized
as Canada’s leading duo pianists, Anagnoson and Kinton turned up at the
St. Lawrence Centre’s Jane Mallet Theatre Tuesday night with a pair of
Yamaha grands to celebrate their anniversary. An appreciative full house
turned up with them."
(Music Toronto Chamber
Series)
Music Critic William
Littler, The Toronto Star (9 December 2001)
The year 2006 marked a special milestone for
James Anagnoson and Leslie Kinton. In 1976, they began a career as a piano
duo with recitals in Europe and Canada that were met with enthusiastic reviews.
They went on quickly to establish themselves as “Canada’s foremost piano duo” (Classical
Music Magazine), and then to an international career that has taken them
repeatedly to musical centres all over the world. Highlights of their
2006-2007 season included a performance of the Mozart Concerto for Two Pianos
with conductor Mario Bernardi, a performance of the Poulenc Concerto for Two
Pianos at the Toronto Centre for the Arts with conductor Simon Streatfeild,
a two week concert tour of China which included a concert at the Shanghai
International Festival, and performances throughout Canada. The
year culminated with their seventh appearance at the chamber and recital series Music
Toronto.
Anagnoson & Kinton’s
international appearances have consistently been met with critical acclaim.
Their New York debut was cited by Joseph Horowitz in The New York Times
as “an outstanding recital” with “formidable precision and panache”, while
Richard Dyer in The Boston Globe commented that “as individuals they seem
to have no technical shortcomings; in tandem they are more than twice as good”.
For their 25th anniversary season, the duo returned to London England for a
concert that was featured in both Gramophone E-magazine and Britain’s
Piano Magazine. Shortly after that, they returned to New York City for
two concerts as part of the innovative Bargemusic series.
Anagnoson & Kinton have
been heard live on the BBC, Hilversum Radio in Holland, Radio Suisse Romande,
Hong Kong Radio, and frequently on Canada’s national radio network, the CBC.
They have also performed on numerous occasions with many of Canada’s major
symphony orchestras, including the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, CBC Radio
Orchestra, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra, Winnipeg Symphony, Victoria Symphony,
Symphony Nova Scotia, and the Kitchener Waterloo Symphony. As well, with
two Yamaha concert grand pianos in tow, the duo has performed on extended tours
in virtually every part of Canada, the American Midwest, and the Pacific
Northwest.
Over the course of their
30 year career, Anagnoson & Kinton have premiered over 20 compositions for two
pianos, one piano four hands, two pianos with orchestra, and two pianos and
percussion, many compositions which they themselves commissioned. They
gave the North American premiere of Stravinsky’s own two piano version of
Dumbarton Oaks Concerto, and went on to record it in a highly acclaimed CD
that also included Poulenc’s Concerto in d minor for Two Piano and
Canadian Roger Matton’s Concerto for Two Pianos.
Anagnoson & Kinton's recording career
began in 1981 with the release of Bartok's own duet version of The Miraculous
Mandarin. Since then, the duo has made eight recordings, including CDs
for two pianos, two pianos with orchestra, and one piano four hands. Their
recordings have consistently been greeted with critical acclaim; Fanfare
Magazine characterized their recording of the Arensky Suites as being
“…a performance of great lucidity and power, flawlessly integrated”. Their
CDs are continually played on radio networks worldwide. In 2006, a compilation double CD entitled Stages, celebrating the duo’s
30-year career, was released at the 30th Anniversary Gala Concert under the
auspices of Music Toronto.
Recently, Anagnoson &
Kinton have expanded their repertoire to areas outside the traditional recital
and concerto formats. In 2005, with Ballet British Columbia, they played
four fully-staged performances of Stravinsky’s original duet version of The
Rite of Spring in Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre. In the summer
of 2006, Anagnoson & Kinton collaborated with the acclaimed Canadian actor Colin
Fox in the premiere of a multi-media work entitled Into the Labyrinth for
two pianos and actor, a work they commissioned from the Canadian composer
Raymond Luedeke.
James Anagnoson was a scholarship
student at the Eastman School of Music, and he went on to receive a Masters
degree from The Juilliard School. Leslie Kinton is the recipient of the
Forsythe Graduation Award at the University of Toronto. He holds a Masters
degree in music theory and is a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Toronto.
In 2007, James Anagnoson was appointed Dean of The Glenn Gould School of The
Royal Conservatory of Music. Leslie Kinton is
on the faculties at both the University of Western Ontario and The Glenn Gould
School.
Anagnoson & Kinton are Yamaha Artists
and have recorded for ProArte, CBC’s SM5000, and CBC’s Musica
Viva.
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