Kevin Brown - Guitarist

 About

Canadian born guitarist Kevin Brown is an active educator, performer and composer in the Chicago area.  With a background in classical guitar, jazz, rock, pop and musical theatre he is versed in many styles and is an in-demand instructor and performer.

As a performer he has shared the stage with musicians such as Bobby Watson, Benny Golson, Jimmy Greene, Phil Woods, Marquis Hill, Jon Irabagon, Matt Ulery, Jeff Hamilton, Curtis Nowosad, Chris Madsen, Karl Kohut, Juan Pastor, Tim Ries, Matt Harris, Michael Raynor, Pete Bensen, Artie Black, Matt Ferguson, Kelly Sill, Justin Dillard and many others.  He has performed at the Chicago Jazz Festival, The Chi-town Jazz Festival, The Iowa City Jazz Festival, Jazz Up Glen Ellyn and the St. Charles Jazz Weekend; and some of Chicago’s finest venues for jazz such as the Green Mill and the Jazz Showcase.  He is known for a specialization in fretless guitar and his work with the creative jazz group Mosaik, with which he independently released three albums of original music.  Brown has also presented classical guitar recitals on college campuses, public libraries, and churches.  He also regularly provides music for weddings, private parties and corporate functions throughout out the Midwest.

Kevin Brown began studying guitar as a young boy at the age of 7 with his uncle, Canadian guitarist and composer Peter Ulrich.  In high school he became interested in jazz music by the influence of his school music director, Jeff Kula, when their band was invited as the first ever Canadian band to compete in the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition at Lincoln Center in New York City.  After being invited to compete at Essentially Ellington for a second consecutive year, Brown was awarded an honorable mention soloist award by Wynton Marsalis.

Kevin Brown has had the opportunity to study with Canadian guitarists Peter Ulrich, David Letkemann, Patrick Lussier, Adam Mlodzinski, Larry Roy, and Willie Wiebe.  In 2006 he moved to the United States and continued his studies with Steve Ramsdell, Bob Palmieri, Scott Hesse and Mike Allemana with additional masterclasses and lessons with John Patitucci, Steve Coleman, Rudresh Mahanthappa, Gary Smulyan, Gene Bertoncini, Anne Waller, Fareed Haque, Mark Maxwell, Oscar Ghighlia and Xuefei Yang.

As an instructor Kevin is an adjunct faculty member at the Wheaton College Conservatory of Music teaching studio guitar; he is an affiliate faculty member in the music department at Trinity Christian College directing the jazz ensemble and teaching private and group guitar lessons as well as composition lessons; and he maintains a Suzuki and Preparatory guitar studio at the Wheaton College Community School of the Arts. 

Brown also serves as director for the Institute for Jazz Studies at Bellas Artes School of Music where he oversees the year-round jazz combo program, a summer jazz camp and other jazz programming.  Additionally, he is the director for the Northern Illinois Suzuki Guitar Institute which hosts an annual Suzuki Guitar Summer Institute for students with a teacher education program for teachers interested to learn the Suzuki Method.

Kevin Brown holds a MM in Jazz Composition from DePaul University and a BM in Guitar performance from Wheaton College.  He has also taken multiple teacher training  courses through the Suzuki Association of the Americas teacher development program.

When he is not busy performing, teaching or directing educational programming he enjoys spending time with his wife and 5 children, cooking, camping, spending time outdoors and practicing guitar with his kids.

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