From the age of eighteen months Kevin Kern demonstrated extraordinary talent at the keyboard, and at four he began private lessons. At fourteen he assembled the Well Tempered Clavichord, the ensemble that gave him his first professional engagement. He later enrolled at the University of Michigan School of Music, where he worked with pianist Mischa Kottler, and went on to earn both a Master’s Degree in Performance and a Bachelor of Music from the New England Conservatory of Music. For the next decade he performed throughout Boston’s club circuit before relocating to San Francisco in 1990. There his steady appearances gradually built a growing local following. In 1995, while playing piano at a San Francisco hotel, he was approached by Terence Yallop, founder of Real Music, who signed him on the spot and set production in motion for a debut album. Kern’s compositions arrived with remarkable ease, and the resulting record, In the Enchanted Garden, appeared in 1996. The album quickly found favor with new-age, jazz, and classical listeners alike and earned widespread critical praise. His follow-up, Beyond the Sundial, expanded the music’s scope still further. Drawing on an eclectic range of influences, Kern consistently produced melodic and deeply affecting work. Summer Daydreams, issued in 1998, introduced violin and cello to the arrangements, and the next two releases—In My Life in 1999 and Embracing the Wind in early 2001—continued the steady flow of new material. Through these successive projects Kevin Kern has remained a steady presence in contemporary instrumental music.
