Kenneth Griffiths
Vocal Coach - Lieder
Teaching Philosophy
My most important concern is always nurturing accurate readings of composers’ musical scores. Related to this is the search for the technical means to bring these scores to life. But for pianists, perhaps most important of all is my concern for the production of warm, supportive sound that complements the singers for whom the pianist plays.
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Before arriving at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Kenneth Griffiths taught at Indiana University and the University of Tennessee and has held numerous master classes throughout the U.S. and Australia. He studied piano in Australia and Europe and accompanying with Gerhard Hüsch in Munich and at Indiana University.
He has accompanied professional recitals in Australia, Japan, England, Germany, Russia and the U.S. for such artists as Kathleen Battle, Susan Dunn, Susanne Mentzer, Jessye Norman, Stanford Olsen, David Shifrin, Stuart Skelton, Benita Valente, Sarah Walker and Delores Ziegler. He has appeared as concert narrator in Schoenberg’s Ode to Napoleon with the Arditti, LaSalle and Vermeer Quartets and is also featured on the Deutsche Grammophone recording of the same work with the LaSalle Quartet.
From1992 until 2016 he was a faculty member of the Tanglewood Music Festival vocal/accompanying program where he taught master classes and “Russian For Singers”, and also prepared recital and chamber music ensembles.
In 1995 and 2000 he was a jury member for the Robert Schumann International Vocal Competition in Zwickau, Germany.
In the spring of 2004 he served on the jury of the prestigious International Lieder Duo Competition sponsored by Hugo Wolf Society in Stuttgart, Germany. This tri-annual competition is devoted to the lieder repertoire of specific composers and that year it focused on the songs of Brahms, Schoenberg and his pupils. During the summer of 2004 he served for the third time on the jury of the International Robert Schumann Lieder Competition in Zwickau, Germany.
Education
- MM, University of Tennessee.
- BA, Dipl. Ed. University of Melbourne (Australia).