About Dr. Bryan Kennard
Composer and flutist Bryan Kennard has written extensively for jazz ensembles and small groups, chamber ensembles, and full orchestra. His music has been performed at the Montreux and North Sea Jazz Festivals, the Jazz Educators Network Conference, the National Flute Association Convention, the International Double Reed Society Convention, and the Texas Music Educators Association Convention.
Bryan has presented his music in workshops and presentations at the International Society for Jazz Arrangers and Composers Symposia, and he has worked privately with composers and arrangers including Gary Lindsay, John Daversa, Stephen Guerra, John Mills, Dave Morgan, and Maria Schneider.
As a flutist, Bryan has studied classical flute performance and pedagogy and has supplemented this with studying jazz improvisation. He regularly plays music in a wide range of styles such as classical chamber music, jazz, Brazilian styles, bluegrass, and other cross-over genres.
As a bandleader, Bryan regularly performs with his quintet and larger groups throughout Northeast Ohio and beyond, and he often appears as a sideman with other musicians’ projects. He also serves as president of the Greater Cleveland Flute Society.
Bryan received his DMA in Jazz Composition from the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music where he served as a Teaching Assistant for the Studio Music and Jazz department as well as Coordinator/Composition Fellow for the Henry Mancini Institute. He earned his MM in Jazz Composition from the University of Texas at Austin, a MM in Flute Performance from Youngstown State University, and BM from Mercyhurst University.
He was awarded the 2016 Stribling Award for Excellence in Jazz Studies while attending UT, was a Young Composer Showcase selectee at the 2019 JEN Conference, and received multiple Downbeat Student Music Awards for performance, composition, arranging, and engineering while a graduate student.