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John M. Kennedy
Composer-Bassist-Educator
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“Creating the spark in others that music created in me. ”
RECORDINGS
EQUINOX (for EPK click here)
Soundset Recordings
JUNE 2024 PERFORMANCES
June in Buffalo
Monday, June 10, 2024
Nicholas Isherwood performs
"Drones, Improvisations, Refrains" for fixed media and bass baritone voice
Recognitions
2023 ASCAP Plus Award
2021 President's Distinguished Professor
California State University, Los Angeles
2017 Fulbright Scholar, The University of Malta
Fellow, The American Communities Program at CSULA
Featured Work
Mnemonic Meditations Book 1, II. B.T.
This work, dedicated to the memory of Breonna Taylor is from the first set in a series of meditations, memorializing African Americans killed at the hands of police and those acting in the name of the police. These meditations came to the composer in early June 2020 as the United States erupted in civil unrest at the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In the midst of a global pandemic, Americans took to the streets to express their outrage. These pieces are an expression of the composer’s outrage, and frustration that the world health crisis kept him from active participation in the unrest.
Each of the four meditations have an inscription of the pitches applied to the name of each person(s) memorialized, and in some cases have a brief comment clarifying notational practice and interpretation. The notation is in a rather mannerist style where the accidentals are notated to reflect the pitch mnemonics. In some cases, this creates intervallic spellings counter to notational best practices. Click on the score for a performance by James Ford III
Each of the four meditations have an inscription of the pitches applied to the name of each person(s) memorialized, and in some cases have a brief comment clarifying notational practice and interpretation. The notation is in a rather mannerist style where the accidentals are notated to reflect the pitch mnemonics. In some cases, this creates intervallic spellings counter to notational best practices. Click on the score for a performance by James Ford III
