American composer John M Kennedy produces an eclectic group of work, ranging from mixed ensemble and solo pieces to multi-media works (which he refers to as his “things and gadgets” series) and a group of “Songbooks” inspired by Whitman. Recent performances of his work include the premiere of “From the Ground Up” by the Olympia Youth Orchestra in June 2011, and performances of “5 Reflections on Nefertiti” and “Janus II” with the composer collective Synchromy. During the 2011-2012 season his work will be featured in North America and Europe with premiers on the Utah Arts Festival, the Malta International Music Festival in Valletta, and performances by saxophonist William H. Street (Canada), double bassist Tom Peters (Los Angeles) and clarinetist Roger Arve Vigulf (Norway). His commissions include the Olympia Youth Orchestra, the Baldwin-Wallace College Wind Ensemble and the Northern Ohio Youth Orchestra. Kennedy’s work has been featured in performances worldwide including his orchestral work “Portrait…” during the 1989 Salzburg Festival at the Mozarteum, the International New Music Festival, Kwang-ju, Korea, the International Festival of New Music, Daegu, Korea, regular performances in Europe of his solo clarinet work, “Smoking Mirrors” by Norwegian clarinetist Roger Arve Vigulf and collaboration with Naxos recording artists Hong Mei Xiao, viola and Nicholas Isherwood, baritone in the premiere of “Desde el Balcón”. 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 receives continuing recognition with grants from Meet the Composer, Inc., annual Standard Panel Awards from ASCAP since 1991 and Subito grants from the American Composers Forum, Los Angeles.

            Kennedy is an active performer, teacher, conductor and researcher. He performs regularly on the double bass as an improviser and chamber music performer, most notably as the music director of the Chamber Players of Los Angeles. Among his credits as a conductor is the world premiere of Antoine Bonnet’s “Fugues, echos, fragments”, a work he commissioned through the FACE program of the Consulat Général de France in New York and the Pacific Contemporary Music Center in Los Angeles. In 2000 he had the honor of co-conducting Henry Brant’s “Horizontals Extending” with the composer on the Santa Barbara New Music Festival. The list of American composers he has collaborated with includes Leslie Bassett, William Kraft, Chinary Ung, and Kui Dong. He has lectured extensively on modern music including presentations for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, where he hosted live interviews of composers Harrison Birtwistle, Christopher Rouse, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Osvaldo Golijov, Jerry Goldsmith and Elmer Bernstein. His research topics include the use of modernist compositional technique in the music of jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter, applications of world music improvisation in the general education classroom and the effects of transmigration on music education with his wife and research partner Satik Andriassian. This eclectic body of research has been presented on conferences throughout the US, Canada and at the University of Surrey, UK. Since 1994, Kennedy has been professor of music composition at California State University, Los Angeles, where he is director of the Pacific Contemporary Music Center.