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John M. Kennedy
Composer-Bassist-Educator
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“Creating the spark in others that music created in me. ”
Explore the Music
Mnemonic Meditations, Book 1 B.T. (2020)
for solo trumpet
Chaconne-Part 1 (2019)
for mixed sextet
Matins (2020)
for piano solo
Lamentations: Hayasdan (rev. 2013)
for alto saxophone and piano
Monument li Dwerja (2021)
for baritone voice and piano
Recognitions
2021 President's Distinguished Professor
California State University, Los Angeles
2021 ASCAP Plus Award
2017 Fulbright Scholar, The University of Malta
Fellow, The American Communities Program at CSULA
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Featured Premiere
Monument Li Dwerja
A work for baritone voice and piano, premiered by Jeremy Huw Williams and Paula Fan,
November, 2021.
The work reflects on loss, loss of treasured landmarks, spiritual symbols and cultural place. Dwerja was a symbol of Maltese pride for centuries, suddenly taken away. I see the loss as more specific and include the gentrification of neighborhoods that are points of pride for generations of Latinos, Asians, and African Americans in the US. Malta suffers from similar trends as well. The swift collapse of the rock seen as the swift use of economic leverage to take away decades of established storefronts catering to subcultures of immigrants who occupy our cities. I also extend the metaphor to the appropriation of Native lands such as the Aboriginal sacred rock Urulu in Australia, or the Black Hills of the Lakota where Mt. Rushmore stands.
