Kevin Gunia
composer and pianist
Kevin Gunia is a composer, pianist, and educator. He strives to create compelling works and performances by studying and reacting to the musical past, particularly the 20th century. He believes in the importance of passing on knowledge and experience to the next generation of musicians.
He has been commissioned to write for ~Nois Saxophone Quartet and the Boulder Altitude Directive. He has also written for soprano Estelí Gomez; and the Ivalas Quartet, currently in residence at the Juilliard School. His works have been recognized through the National Association for Music Education, the New Jersey Music Educators Association, and Mason Gross Community Arts. His Second String Quartet won the Graduate Composition Award at the University of Colorado Boulder. He was the recipient of the George Lynn Memorial Award, for which he researched the four piano sonatas of composer George Lynn.
As a pianist, Gunia has performed solo and collaborative programs. He places an emphasis on 20th and 21st century American music. He has been a featured performer at the West Coast Ragtime Festival (Sacramento, CA) and the Historic Sutter Creek Ragtime Festival (Sutter Creek, CA). He plays in a four-hands duo with Michael Chisholm, and a two-piano ensemble with Michael Chisholm and Frederick Hodges called The Pianophiends. He has also performed with The Pacific Coast Ragtime Orchestra.
At the University of Colorado Boulder, Gunia taught the entire aural skills curriculum. He also gave composition lessons to local high schoolers, helping them prepare short works for performance by musicians from the Boulder Philharmonic Orchestra. Gunia is currently a teaching assistant at the University of Oregon, with a focus on the undergraduate Composition II course and the Oregon Composers Forum concerts.
Gunia is currently a Ph.D. student in Music Composition at the University of Oregon. His primary instructors are Robert Kyr and David Crumb. He graduated with a master's degree from the University of Colorado Boulder, where he studied with Carter Pann and Michael Theodore. He completed undergraduate studies at Rutgers University, where he studied with Charles Fussell, Robert Aldridge, and Scott Ordway.
You can view my CV here.
