Kevin Terrell Madison

. . . is a pianist-composer and teaching artist whose work bridges classical performance, contemporary composition, and interdisciplinary musical practice. His music operates at the intersection of the cerebral and the somatic, merging the traditional classical canon and post-1950s repertoire with the emancipatory mechanics of social dance.

  Trained as a classical pianist, Kevin first gained recognition through winning 1st prize in the Brevard Solo Piano and Concerto competitions, earning him a performance of Beethoven’s 3rd with the Brevard Symphony Orchestra and multiple features on WQXR, including several broadcasts of one of his first solo piano compositions, him calling. He holds a Master’s degree in contemporary classical performance from the Boston Conservatory, where he specialized in post-1950 repertoire and premiered works by numerous living composers, including a concerto by Guggenheim fellow Marti Epstein. His engagement with new music propelled him toward the uninhibited creative atmosphere of CalArts for his D.M.A. in Performance-Composition, inspiring a deep dive into the intersections of music theory and the sociopolitical history of social dance. This sparked a foray into his own composing, where he began dismantling the boundaries between the concert hall and the dance floor.

    His work, often characterized by kinetic rhythms and subverted classical forms, has been commissioned and presented by organizations such as the Seoul Museum of Art, REDCAT, the Next Festival (NYC), Bang on a Can, the Harvard Music Festival, Hamraborg Festival (Reykjavik), Lunga Festival (Iceland), re:publica (Hamburg), the Contemporary Art Centre (Lithuania), the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Castle of Our Skins, and The New Gallery Concert Series.

                Kevin has now completed his D.M.A. at CalArts where he taught courses in score study, composition techniques, and contemporary music practices, including two original seminars—Disco: Emancipatory Dancefloors and The Semiotics of Queerness in Music.  He has been a guest lecturer and composer at Harvard University,  Montclair State University and The University of Chicago.