Kevin Zetina is a passionate performer, composer, and arranger of all things contemporary whether it be performing seminal works of the last century, premiering or writing brand new works, or arranging heavy metal music for contemporary classical ensembles. He has performed with members of Eighth Blackbird, Ensemble Signal, the JACK Quartet, and the Bang on a Can All-Stars. Kevin holds a BM from the Eastman School of Music with the Howard Hanson Scholarship where he studied with Michael Burritt, and he earned his MM and MMA degrees from Yale University as a Havemeyer Scholarship recipient under Robert van Sice. Kevin is the Lecturer of Percussion at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, College of Music.
As a performer, Kevin is a percussionist with multitudes of experience in contemporary music. Having grown up as a guitarist focused on various sorts of death metal, Kevin has always been drawn to music that is experimental in nature. In this effort to push experimentation in music Kevin started the first student-run new music ensemble at the Yale School of Music: Versicolor. The group champions composers who would otherwise be underrepresented and provides a space for contemporary music at Yale. Kevin has played frequently with the Austin based contemporary chamber music group, Density 512. Currently he champions a diverse array of contemporary music through his direction of the University of Tennessee Percussion Ensemble
As a composer, Kevin blends his background in contemporary western art music and popular music to create something that is both unique yet accessible to audiences from either background. His most recent projects include Coalescence (2021), a piece for mallet quartet & piano commissioned by the Yale Percussion Group, and shepard tone (2020), a piece for Vibraphone & Piano which was premiered at the Manhattan School of Music.
As an educator, Kevin currently serves as Lecturer of Percussion at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, College of Musicwhere he teaches applied lessons to percussion majors and directs the UT Percussion Ensemble. Outside of collegiate teaching he has worked with students at all levels on instruments including drum-set, percussion, guitar, and piano. He has taught private percussion lessons for undergraduate students at Yale College and high school students at the Cheshire Academy, a private college preparatory boarding school in Connecticut. His students at Yale College, all of whom were non-music majors, have excelled comparably to conservatory students through winning spots at summer music festivals as well as the College Band Director's National Association's Intercollegiate Band. Kevin has also worked with high school students in Texas as a Marching Percussion Instructor and has guided many young percussionists as a private lesson teacher throughout the Round Rock/Leander area. While there, he coached the Walsh MS Honor Band as they were invited to perform at the Midwest Clinic.
As an orchestral musician, Kevin has worked in groups such as the Central Texas Philharmonic, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, the New Haven Chamber Orchestra, the Norwalk Symphony Orchestra, Yale Philharmonia, and the Greece and Irondequoit chamber orchestras in upstate New York. He has played under conductors including Peter Oundjian, Carolyn Kuan, Jean Mari-Zeitouni, Ludovic Morlot, Neil Varon, and Brad Lubman
Education
2020 - 2021
Yale University, MMA
2018 - 2020
Yale University, MM
2014 - 2018
Eastman School of Music, BM
Residencies
2021 - Present
Luzerne Music Center, Percussion Director
2021 - Present
Sam Houston State University Band Camp, Percussion Faculty
2022
University of Nebraska at Omaha, Guest Artist
2022
Yale School of Music, Guest Artist
Teaching
2023 - present
2022 - 2023
2021 - 2023
2019 - 2021
2019 - 2021
2014 - 2016
University of Tennessee Knoxville, Lecturer of Percussion
Leander MS, Head Percussion Director
Walsh MS, Wiley MS, Pearson Ranch MS, Private Lesson Teacher
Yale College, Secondary Lesson Teacher
Cheshire Academy, Chair of Percussion Studies
Winston Churchill High School, Marching Percussion Instructor
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(210) 882-9906
