Thomas Rosenkranz has charted a career that breaks through the conventional notion of what a classical pianist is. Equally at home with the standard repertoire to the most recent developments in contemporary music and improvisation, he has established himself as one of the most innovative pianists of his generation. He currently serves as Professor of Piano and Keyboard Area Coordinator at the UMKC Conservatory and as honorary guest professor at the Sichuan Conservatory of Music in China.
Since being named a recipient of the Classical Fellowship Award from the American Pianists Association, he has performed throughout the world with recent festival performances at the Lincoln Center Arts Festival, ProPiano (Greece), Amalfi Coast Festival (Italy), Rivello (Italy), Shanghai New Music Festival (China) and the Carthage International Festival (Tunisia) among others. He has been a soloist with the Indianapolis Symphony, Beirut National Orchestra, Seattle Chamber Orchestra and was the featured soloist with the Oberlin Orchestra’s tour of China.
He has twice served as a Cultural Ambassador on behalf of the United States Department of State where he traveled to the Middle East and North Africa promoting diplomacy through artistic collaboration. He continues to present concerts in areas of the world where classical concerts are rare, including the islands of Bali and Borneo in Indonesia, Inner Mongolia, and throughout Yunnan Province in China. In 2022, He was named a Senior Fulbright Scholar to Taiwan where he served as artist-in-residence at Tunghai University and presented a series of concerts, master classes and lectures focused on American Music.
In addition to his performance career, he is also a celebrated artist-teacher. He has been presented in residencies and master classes at some of the world’s most prestigious institutions including the Shanghai, Shenyang, Tianjin, Xi’an, Xinghai, and Zhejiang Conservatories of China as well Taipei Normal University and the Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts. Since 2006 he has served as a summer faculty member at the soundSCAPE Festival (Switzerland). His former students have been prize winners at national and international competitions and hold professorships throughout the United States and Asia.
Before joining the faculty at UMKC, he served on the faculty at the College of Musical Arts of Bowling Green State University (2008-2018), Oberlin Conservatory (2017) and The University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa (2005-2008).
He studied with Robert Shannon at the Oberlin Conservatory (B.M.) and at the Eastman School of Music (M.M. and D.M.A.) where He studied with and was teaching assistant to Nelita True. On behalf of the Presser Foundation for Music, he studied with Yvonne Loriod-Messiaen in Paris.
For more information visit: www.thomasrosenkranz.net
