Tea for Two - The Vincent Youmans Songbook

Kenneth Berkel, born in 1996 in Berlin, discovered his passion for the piano at the age of six. He studied jazz piano at the Jazz-Institut Berlin with Prof. Wolfgang Köhler and Tino Derado, and also pursued classical piano as a secondary subject. Today, Berkel is active as a pianist and composer in numerous ensembles, including the Torsten Zwingenberger 4tet and the big band of the Deutsche Oper Berlin. Since 2022, he has been a member of the orchestra of the Bad Hersfelder Festspiele. He has collaborated with artists such as Katharine Mehrling, Gitte Hænning, Fola Dada, and Ilja Richter, and has performed for the Federal President of Germany.

In the solo series at Orania.Berlin, he turns to the music of American composer Vincent Youmans (1898–1946), best known for his successful Broadway musicals of the 1920s, including No, No, Nanette, from which the worldwide hit Tea for Two originated. Youmans’ music is distinguished by its memorable melodies, reflecting the spirit of the Roaring Twenties. Despite his comparatively small overall output, he is regarded as an important figure in American musical theatre.