# Kenneth Hamilton

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{{Short description|Scottish pianist and writer}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}}
{{Infobox person
| name            = Kenneth Hamilton
| image             = File:Kenneth Hamilton.png
| caption       = Hamilton in [Budapest](/source/Budapest), Hungary, 2021
| birth_name    =
| birth_date    = 1963
| birth_place   = [Glasgow](/source/Glasgow), Scotland
| other_names   =
| occupation    = [Pianist](/source/Pianist)
| alma_mater       = {{Unbulleted list|
* [Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama](/source/Royal_Scottish_Academy_of_Music_and_Drama)
* [University of Glasgow](/source/University_of_Glasgow)
* [Balliol College](/source/Balliol_College), [University of Oxford](/source/University_of_Oxford)
}}

}}

'''Kenneth Hamilton''' (born 1963) is a [Scottish](/source/Scotland) [pianist](/source/pianist) and writer, known for [virtuoso](/source/virtuoso) performances of Romantic music, especially [Liszt](/source/Liszt), [Alkan](/source/Charles-Valentin_Alkan) and [Busoni](/source/Busoni).  Hamilton's playing is characterized by spontaneity, technical assurance, and a wide variety of keyboard colour. He was a student of Alexa Maxwell, Lawrence Glover and the Scottish composer-pianist [Ronald Stevenson](/source/Ronald_Stevenson), whose music he champions.<ref>[http://ro.ecu.edu.au/theses/694 Gasser, M., "Ronald Stevenson, Composer-Pianist : An Exegetical Critique from a Pianistic Perspective" (Edith Cowan University Press, Western Australia, 2013)]</ref>

Hamilton lectures on music. He was awarded a doctorate for a dissertation on the music of Liszt by [Balliol College](/source/Balliol_College), [Oxford](/source/University_of_Oxford), where his supervisor was [John Warrack](/source/John_Warrack).<ref>Kenneth Hamilton (1989). [https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:021d129f-3b6d-4a55-893c-ba92ea853653 ''The opera fantasias and transcriptions of Franz Liszt'']. Oxford University Research Archive.</ref> He is the author of ''Liszt: Sonata in B-minor'' (Cambridge University Press, 1996) and the editor of ''[The Cambridge Companion to Liszt](/source/Cambridge_Companions_to_Music)'' (Cambridge University Press, 2005). His widely publicised latest book, ''After the Golden Age: Romantic Pianism and Modern'' ''Performance'' (Oxford University Press, 2008) discusses the differences between the past and the present in concert life and playing styles. Its conclusions have stimulated extensive debate in the musical world.<ref>{{cite web| last = University of Birmingham| title = Kenneth Hamilton, MA BMus (Glasgow), DPhil (Oxon) Reader in Music| url = http://www.music.bham.ac.uk/staff/Hamilton.shtml| accessdate = 2 June 2007| archive-date = 27 May 2012| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120527132901/http://www.birmingham.ac.uk/staff/profiles/music/hamilton-kenneth.aspx| url-status = dead}}</ref>

==Early life==

Hamilton was born in [Glasgow](/source/Glasgow), Scotland in 1963. He attended the [Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama](/source/Royal_Scottish_Academy_of_Music_and_Drama) where his piano teachers were Alexa Maxwell and Lawrence Glover. He later benefitted from the mentorship of [Ronald Stevenson](/source/Ronald_Stevenson), whose music he has had the pleasure of performing and recording.

He is a graduate of the [University of Glasgow](/source/University_of_Glasgow) and of [Balliol College](/source/Balliol_College), Oxford, where he was taught by [Hugh Macdonald](/source/Hugh_Macdonald_(musicologist)) and [John Warrack](/source/John_Warrack). His doctoral dissertation at Balliol was a critical study of the opera fantasias and transcriptions of Franz Liszt.

==Career==

Hamilton was De Velling Willis Research Fellow at the [University of Sheffield](/source/University_of_Sheffield), a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at [Worcester College](/source/Worcester_College), Oxford, and a member of the Music Department of the [University of Birmingham](/source/University_of_Birmingham), before joining [Cardiff University School of Music](/source/Cardiff_University_School_of_Music) as a professor and head of department from 2014 to 2024.

He has been a guest professor at Shanghai, Zhejiang and Xi'an Conservatories, the Central Conservatory (Beijing) and [Peking University](/source/Peking_University) in China; The Princess Galyani Institute of Music in Thailand; the [Franz Liszt Academy](/source/Franz_Liszt_Academy) in Hungary, the [Saint Petersburg Conservatory](/source/Saint_Petersburg_Conservatory) in Russia' the [Royal Academy of Music](/source/Royal_Academy_of_Music) in the UK; and the [University of Miami](/source/University_of_Miami) in the US. He is a distinguished visiting artist of the International Piano Centre at Xiamen Institute of Technology in China.

Hamilton's recordings on the Prima Facie label cover a host of composers, including [Bach](/source/Bach), [Handel](/source/Handel), [Mozart](/source/Mozart), [Beethoven](/source/Beethoven), [Chopin](/source/Chopin), [Liszt](/source/Liszt), Alkan, [Mendelssohn](/source/Mendelssohn), [Brahms](/source/Brahms), [Busoni](/source/Busoni), [Percy Grainger](/source/Percy_Grainger), [Godowsky](/source/Godowsky), [Ronald Stevenson](/source/Ronald_Stevenson), Pedro Faria Gomes and [John Casken](/source/John_Casken). Several albums have become best-sellers. Volume 1 of Kenneth Hamilton Plays Liszt: Death and Transfiguration, was a Gramophone best classical album of 2022; Volume 2, Salon and Stage, was the Guardian's best classical recording of 2023.

He is also a [Steinway Artist](/source/Steinway_Artist).

==References==
{{Reflist}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Hamilton, Kenneth}}
Category:Living people
Category:Scottish classical pianists
Category:British male classical pianists
Category:21st-century British classical pianists
Category:21st-century British male musicians
Category:1963 births
Category:21st-century male pianists

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Kenneth Hamilton](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Hamilton) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Hamilton?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.