Born and raised in San Francisco, violinist Kenneth Renshaw came to international attention in 2012 after winning First Prize at the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition in Beijing. He was also a prize winner in the Queen Elisabeth International Violin Competition of Belgium, and First Prize recipient of the inaugural Manhattan International Concert Artists Competition. 

 

He has since performed extensively throughout many countries, both as soloist with orchestras including the National Orchestra of Belgium, the Lithuanian National Orchestra, the Jenaer Philharmonie and the China Philharmonic Orchestra, and recitals at notable venues such as the Louvre Museum in Paris, the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Festspiele in Germany, and the Menuhin Festival Gstaad. As a chamber musician he has collaborated with many esteemed artists: pianist Leon Fleisher, violinists Itzhak Perlman, Pamela Frank and Cho-Liang-Lin, flautist Sir James Galway and violist Kim Kashkashian at festivals such as Caramoor, Verbier, Ravinia, and Music@Menlo. 

 

Equally committed to teaching and mentoring the next generation of young musicians, Kenneth currently serves as Teaching Assistant to Itzhak Perlman and Li Lin at the Juilliard School. His students (both privately and through Juilliard) have won top prizes in the Yehudi Menuhin, Zhuhai, Leonid Kogan, Johansen, and Louis Spohr International Competitions and have been admitted to Juilliard, New England Conservatory, Colburn, the Perlman Music Program, and other prestigious programs and institutions.

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He served as chamber music faculty at the Perlman Music Program's Summer Music School and Sarasota Winter Residency, and the Crowden Music Center's Chamber Music Workshop. In 2018 he participated in a cultural exchange and  residency in São Paulo Brazil teaching masterclasses and mentoring students of the GURI Youth Orchestra programs.

 

Kenneth is committed to using technology to bring greater access to the highest level of string teaching to a wider audience, having served as content editor and pedagogical consultant for Itzhak Perlman's "Masterclass" series on masterclass.com.

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He holds a Bachelors and Masters degree from the Juilliard School, where he studied with Itzhak Perlman and Li Lin as recipient of the Kovner Fellowship. Other important teachers and mentors include founding Cleveland Quartet violinist Donald Weilerstein, Ian Swensen, and Lynn Oakley. 

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During the pandemic, Kenneth discovered his interest in pre-60s Django jazz, joining San Francisco Bay Area based band The Hot Clams as a guest artist for outdoor socially-distanced water concerts on boats in the San Francisco Bay. He continues to perform with them to this day, most recently at the Cascais Jazz Festival in Portugal, and hopes to bring the sense of connection, joy, and spontaneity of live improvisation to his work as classical performer and educator.