Kymry Esainko

Pianist Kymry Esainko is known for his wide-ranging musical versatility. Principal pianist for the Santa Rosa Symphony since 2002, he has worked with many conductors, including Bruno Ferrandis, Francesco Lecce-Chong, Jeffrey Kahane, Joana Carneiro, and John Adams, performing on piano, celesta, harpsichord, portativ organ, and synthesizer.

Esainko’s work as a vocal and choral accompanist has taken him to concert halls around the world, including Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, the KKL in Lucerne, and the Basilique Sainte-Clotilde in Paris. He toured with Persian tombak player Homayoun Shajarian in 2017 and has accompanied artists as varied as vocalist Ute Lemper and cellist Johannes Moser. Esainko greatly enjoys playing with the Piedmont Children’s Choirs and has toured the UK, Finland, and Estonia with their Ensemble chorus. Along with the Santa Rosa Symphony, Esainko has performed with numerous orchestras, including those in California, Marin, Oakland, Monterey, and the Sun Valley Summer Symphony. He was thrilled to perform Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G with Golden Gate Symphony at the Herbst Theater and at the Flower Piano in 2023 and 2025.

An avid chamber musician, he has formed trios with fellow SRS colleagues Kathleen Reynolds, Alex Volonts, Laura Reynolds, and Carla Wilson, performing at Schroeder Hall, the Maybeck Studio in Berkeley, and Preston Hall in Mendocino. Currently, he performs with the Reuleaux Trio with Katrina Walter on flute and Alex Volonts on viola. A versatile jazz and improvisatory pianist, Esainko has played for Matt Small’s Crushing Spiral Ensemble, the Full Spectrum Big Band, and the Club Foot Orchestra, which performed an original score to Fritz Lang’s Metropolis at the JAZZ Center and a marathon silent film retrospective at San Francisco’s Castro Theatre. And although the warm glow and spacious stage of the Green Music Center is quite lovely, Esainko’s favorite place to perform is the incomparable Flower Piano festival, held every September at the San Francisco Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park.

Esainko was born in San Francisco and grew up in Sacramento, Calif. He began playing the piano at the age of seven, and later graduated from Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music with degrees in piano performance and American history. He studied classical piano with Frank Wasko, Peter Takacs, and Sanford Margolis, and jazz piano with Neal Creque and Ed Kelly. He lives in Oakland with his vocalist/trombonist wife Becca, his son Kai, daughter Stella, and a menagerie of cats and dogs.

Photo by Susan and Neil Silverman Photography