The Canadian conductor, pianist, teacher and musicologist, Kenneth Hull, obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Waterloo (1976); his Bachelor of Music degree from the University of Western Ontario (1977); his Master of Music degree from the University of Western Ontario (1980); his PhD degree in Historical Musicology from Princeton University in New Jersey (1989); and his Master of Arts degree in Christian Spirituality from The General Theological Seminary (2004).
Kenneth Hull has a special interest in the music of J.S. Bach and music in liturgy and ritual. He was Director of the Church Music and Worship program at Conrad Grebel University College at the University of Waterloo, where he also taught courses in music, liturgy and the sacred choral music of J.S. Bach. Her retired from from Conrad Grebel in June 2018. He was Director of Music at St George’s of Forest Hill Anglican Church in Kitchener for 22 years, until 2008.
As a pianist, Kenneth Hull has performed widely as both solo and chamber musician in music by J.S. Bach, W.A. Mozart, L.v. Beethoven, Schubert, Frédéric Chopin, Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Johannes Brahms, Debussy, Dmitri Shostakovich, Béla Bartók, Francis Poulenc, Copland, and many others.
Kenneth Hull's research areas are s Music in Christian Worship, Music in Spiritual Formation. His scholarly work has been published in Liturgy, Anglican and Episcopal History, Brahms Studies, The Hymn, Reformed Liturgy and Music, and The Canterbury Dictionary of Hymns and Hymnology. His edition of J. Brahms’ Fourth Symphony is published in the series of Norton Critical Scores. In August 2012, he received an Award of Recognition from the Laurier Centre for Music in the Community (LcMc).
In 2009, Kenneth Hull founded Spiritus Ensemble, a vocal and instrumental ensemble based in Kitchener-Waterloo, dedicated to the performance of great religious music, especially the cantatas of J.S. Bach. He has the Artistic Director of the ensemble. Since its founding, Spiritus Ensemble has performed over 25 of J.S. Bach’s cantatas, as well as motets and other works by J.S. Bach, Johann Christoph Bach, Antonio Vivaldi, Heinrich Schütz, Dietrich Buxtehude, Gottfried August Homilius, Nicolaus Bruhns, Johann Kuhnau, Josef Rheinberger, Benjamin Britten, James MacMillan, and Morten Lauridsen. He currently lives in Kitchener, Ontario. |