Spokane’s Kendall Feeney, a beloved musician and advocate, dies of cancer

Kendall Feeney, a beloved and accomplished Spokane pianist and piano educator, died Sunday.

Her husband, Anthony Flinn, said she died at Hospice House of cancer. She was 58.

Feeney has been a force in the Spokane music scene since moving here in the mid-1980s. She joined the music faculty at Eastern Washington University in 1990, and shortly thereafter founded Zephyr, a popular classical music series that ran from 1991 to 2003. She performed often with the Spokane Symphony – most recently in September – and with the Spokane String Quartet and Northwest Bach Festival. At one time she was music director at the former Interplayers Theatre in Spokane. Most recently, she performed with the local group Tango Volcado and served as director of the Contemporary Music ensemble at EWU. She was honored with a Spokane Arts Award in 1997.

She’s been featured on the long-running NPR program “Performance Today,” and has toured the U.S. and Asia as a piano soloist and chamber musician.

Those who never heard Feeney perform in person might recognize her from another creative outlet: As Spokane Public Radio noted Monday on its website, “She was a frequent reader on ‘The Bookshelf’ on Spokane Public Radio, as well as frequent contributor and guest on ‘The Piano Bench’ ‘Men in Charge’ and other creative programs.”

In her honor, the station on Tuesday will repeat an interview and performance with Feeney and “Piano Bench” host Jim Tevenan recorded in December 2014. The show runs from 11 a.m. to noon on 91.1 FM.

Feeney was born April 26, 1958, in Long Beach, California. By age 7 she’d decided on a piano career, she told The Spokesman-Review in 1995. She earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in music from the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

Throughout Spokane’s musical community, Feeney’s friends and colleagues expressed their sadness and admiration.

“Her dynamic artistry skills she carried and imparted changed the course of my musical journey,” said master accordion player Patricia Bartell, a member with Feeney in Tango Volcado, in a Facebook post.

Karen Mobley, former director of the city’s art department, also wrote on Facebook, “I will never forget when I first came to Spokane how Kendall captured the imaginations of all the city with Zephyr and the programs at the Met. What a brilliant woman with such a shining imagination and generous heart.”

Blues guitarist and KPBX host Leon Atkinson remarked on Facebook, “Kendall Feeney (was) a great asset to the musical community in Spokane. She was a wonderful musician and a great innovator.”

Plans for a memorial service are pending.