User:Jkenned/sandbox

The breadth of John M. Kennedy’s work reflects his early background as a rock and jazz bassist, and an entire career of exploring new ideas and concepts in his music. Due to the political climate in recent years his work has taken on more themes of social justice. In 2021 and into 2022, two large scale projects will remain constant in his work flow, "Sidewalks" for singer and ensemble that will promote empathy for those around us, and a group improvisation called "Un Día en la Playa", a site specific piece with two ensembles positioned on opposite sides of the border wall at El Muro en la Playa, Tijuana, Mexico, and Border State Beach, Imperial Beach, California, USA.

Throughout the current global pandemic, Kennedy has remained active as a composer completing a set of trumpet pieces memorializing African-Americans lost to police violence (Mnemonic Meditations, 2020), “Chaconne Part 2” for mixed sextet, “Triticco Siciliano” (2020) for solo guitar, “Folios I” (2021) for indeterminant percussion quintet, two works for solo double bass, “Proto-HautaAho-moto perpetuo” (2020) and “Inserts” (2021), and “Matins” (2020) for solo piano, premiered in April, 2021 by Canadian Pianist Heather Taves during a livestream recital at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada. This performance will also include 5 original paintings by Kennedy’s wife Satik Andriassian.

Recent premieres include "Monument Li Dwerja" (2021) by Welsh baritone Jeremy Huw Williams and American pianist Paula Fan in Los Angeles, November, 2021, "Inserts" by the CSULA String Orchestra, October, 2021, “Matins” by Canadian pianist Heather Taves during a livestream recital at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada in April, 2021 (with 5 original paintings by Satik Andriassian), and the premiere of “Proto-HautaAho-moto perpetuo” (2020) in June 2021 by Susan Hagen at the International Society of Bassists virtual conference. These “pandemic” works are in the process of being recorded by artists world-wide, and will be released on streaming services in late 2022.

Recent career highlights include the European premiere of Chaconne Part 1 by Ensemble KammerKlang in Norway (August 2020), the 2019 release of his “Yer-(2012)” for solo flute by Rita D’Arcangelo in Italy, and the premiere of “Chaconne-Part 1” for mixed sextet by the French group TM+ (2019). Upcoming first performances include the premiere of his solo bass piece “Proto-HautaAho-moto perpetuo” (2020) in June 2021 by Susan Hagen at the International Society of Bassists virtual conference. His work has been performed throughout the US and Europe, including World Saxophone Congresses in Scotland and Zagreb; in Malta by members of the Malta Philharmonic and the Armed Forces Malta Band; Interensemble of Padova, Italy; the Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble; the Salzburg Mozarteum; and new music festivals in Bangkok, Kwang-ju and Daegu. As a double bassist he premiered William Roper’s “New-Opened Eyes-1965” memorializing the Watts Riots in February 2019, and in June 2019 premiered Roper’s entire graphic score suite, "Experience > Dream > Memory - Slivers of Time”.  In April, 2021 he returned to double bass and electric bass performance in Jack Van Zandt’s opera “The New Frontier” at the CSU Fullerton New Music Festival.

In 2017 he received a Fulbright Scholar award to spend a semester teaching at the University of Malta. In addition to lectures in composition and American musical styles, he was asked to write a work for brass and percussion commemorating the arrival of the SS Ohio to Malta, breaking a WW II blockade of the island nation. The work was premiered in Malta on August 14, 2017, the 75th anniversary of the arrival. Kennedy has made significant contributions to the saxophone literature and two of these works were performed at the 2018 World Saxophone Congress in Zagreb, Croatia: the premiere of “Breath, Smoke, Crystals” for solo saxophone by Tong Yang of China, and “Lamentations: Hayasdan” for saxophones and piano by Dionisios Russos of Greece. Early recognition for his work includes the Charles Ives Prize from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters and a Young Composer Award from ASCAP. His work has been recognized by Meet the Composer (Now New Music USA), ASCAP Plus Awards and Subito grants from the American Composers Forum, Los Angeles. A faculty member of California State University, Los Angeles since 1994, he received an Outstanding Professor Award in 2013. At the University of Michigan, he studied music composition with Leslie Bassett and William Albright, and double bass with Lawrence Hurst and Stuart Sankey. For more information on his work, please visit www.johnmkennedy.net, or follow him on Twitter (@composerkennedy) and Facebook (@johnmkennedycomposer).

Background

After years as a self-taught rock bassist, Kennedy began formal training at the Berklee College of Music, studying jazz bass, arranging and jazz composition. The experience of studying in Boston was a watershed event that led to interests in a variety of musical styles, including orchestral music. After two years at Berklee, he returned home to Cleveland where he was active as a bassist and arranger in the local jazz scene. During this time, he was a member of the jazz octet “Jones’ Bones”, performing on occasion with legendary trombonist Jiggs Whigam, and participating in performances broadcast on TV and radio in Northern Ohio. While in Cleveland, he attended the Baldwin-Wallace Conservatory to continue his pursuit of classical training on the double bass. As a student at BW, his interests once again shifted toward composition and he spent the last years there balancing a performance degree with composition studies. After completing the B.Mus. in double bass performance he received a commission by the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra (1985), received First Prize in the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs Young Composer Contest (1985) and was awarded a fellowship in composition at the University of Michigan. Kennedy studied with Leslie Bassett, William Albright, Fred Lerdahl and Eugene Kurtz while in Ann Arbor.

Performance

In recent years, Kennedy has returned to an active double bass schedule, performing on recitals in Los Angeles, Edmonton, Canada and Valletta, Malta. In 2013 he returned to Malta, performing Rossini’s “Grand Duo” for ‘cello and double bass and his transcriptions of Villa-Lobos’ “Bachianas Brasillieras No.5” and Bottesini’s “Elegy” for guitar and double bass. As music director of the Chamber Players of Los Angeles, he conducted works of Stravinsky, Gounod and Dvorak, and performed works of Singleton, Dvorak, Schubert and Beethoven on the double bass. Performing the music of our time has been a major part of his career. Kennedy’s eclectic credits include conducting the world premiere of Antoine Bonnet’s “Fugues, echos, fragments” for mixed octet in 2007; performing as second conductor with Henry Brandt on Brandt’s “Horizontals Extending” in 2002, a series of performances as percussionist with his wife, guitarist Satik Andriassian, in George Crumb’s “Mundus Canis” in 2005; a double bass improvisation with UK spoken word artist Anthony Joseph in 2003; and working with composers Leslie Bassett, William Kraft, Henry Brandt, Chinary Ung and Kui Dong as a conductor. In 2010, he participated in the Los Angeles premiere of Alvin Singleton’s “Intezar” for viola, ‘cello and double bass.

Scholarship

Throughout his career he has worked as a scholar and teacher, focusing recently in two areas, creolization in music and the confluence of American jazz and modernist music. He has presented at conferences in the US, UK and Canada, including the AHRC Diasporas, Migration and Identities Programme/CRONEM Conference 2009 at the University of Surrey, Guildford, UK, the 2011 West Coast Conference on Music Theory and Analysis at UC-Santa Barbara on the topic “Modernist Compositional Gesture in Wayne Shorter’s ‘Nefertiti’” and regional meetings of the College Music Society. He has lectured for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, interviewing many composers including Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Christopher Rouse, Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, Osvaldo Golijov and Esa Pekka Salonen. He is on the master teacher roster of the Malta International Music Festival, where he was in residence each summer from 2012-2016.