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Biography

A two-time co-recipient of the DownBeat Magazine Award for Best Collegiate Instrumental Chamber Ensemble, Kevin has been playing saxophone for nearly twenty years. Since relocating to New York to pursue a performance career, he has performed at The Knitting Factory, the Bitter End, the Joyce SOHO, the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, the Bowery Poetry Club, the Stain Bar, as well as Grace Church Van Vorst and the Brennan Courthouse in Jersey City. Recently Kevin performed at the 33rd Annual International Saxophone Symposium at George Mason University.

Challenging people's preconceptions about how the saxophone should sound and what the saxophone should play has become a hallmark of his early career. By performing what is generally considered 'classical' music in places where it's not often heard, he is striving to open new doors for the instrument and create more opportunities for contemporary, composed music to reach his generation.

"I didn't grow up listening to 'classical' music or even jazz. Like most in my generation I was into popular music. It was cool. It was entertaining. I just loved playing the saxophone. But when I went off to college and decided to make the instrument my vocation, a whole new world of music was opened up to me. I started hearing—and playing—sounds and melodies, rhythms and chords that delved deeper than most mass-market music. I started seeing music as art, as a way to express that which is almost inexpressible.

"And so I want everything I play to have the sense of something majestic and more wondrous than our daily lives, than the musical noise our culture is bombarded with. I want to share the experience of Beauty I had with everyone who would come hear me perform. And I have to say it’s a challenge. It’d be easier in concert halls with perfect acoustics and an unnaturally quiet, attentive audience. But it is deeply rewarding to me to hear from an audience member after a performance, ‘I’ve never heard the saxophone sound like that. I was captivated.’”

Beyond great technical skill and agility on the instrument, Kevin focuses on producing full and rich tones to draw out the slightest nuances from the diverse list of songs he performs. Having turned his attention recently to composition, he is also forming a saxophone quartet with three other New York City saxophonists, looking to start mixed instrumentation chamber ‘band,’ record his first solo project and continue to perform both solo and with singer/songwriters and anyone else looking get the saxophone's unique voice into their projects.

Kevin received his Bachelors and Masters degrees in Saxophone from the University of Kansas (under the instruction of Vince Gnojek), where he was blessed to have played soprano saxophone in the KU Saxophone Quartet which took home the two consecutive DownBeat awards in 2003 and 2004; he was also principal saxophonist in the wind ensemble and sat in the lead alto and lead tenor saxophone chairs in the nationally recognized Jazz Ensemble I. He finished second in the 2004 Philharmonia of Greater Kansas City Concerto Competition and third, 2004 T. Gordon Parks Memorial Concerto Competition of the Arapahoe Philharmonic (Denver, CO)

He is an active member of and Membership|Conference Director for the International Arts Movement, has performed for Zoae Series and attends the Village Church; enjoys writing poetry; and ran the 2007 ING New York City Marathon in just over 4 hours. He and his wife, Laura, have been married for six wonderful years and love living in Jersey City, NJ.

Kevin plays a Selmer Series III, silver-plated, soprano saxophone on a Selmer S-80 D; a Selmer Mark VII alto saxophone on a Selmer S-80 C*; and a Yamaha Custom, YTS-875 tenor saxophone on a Selmer S-80D and an Otto Link 7* (NY Chamber). And for a little extra fun he plays guitar, bass guitar, and mandolin.