Kevin McKeown

Kevin McKeown has served as conductor of the Wind Ensemble at the University of California, Irvine since 2008. Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, and raised in Santa Monica, California, he earned a bachelor’s in music education and a master’s in instrumental conducting from UCLA, where he studied with Dr. Thomas Lee and Gordon Henderson.

He is currently conductor of the Santa Monica College Wind Ensemble and Director of Bands at Santa Monica High School. In 2019, he was appointed interim director of athletic bands at UCLA, directing the Solid Gold Sound marching band, Varsity Band and the university’s Symphonic Band.

An active adjudicator, clinician and guest conductor, McKeown is a member of the California Band Directors Association, Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association, National Association for Music Education and the College Band Directors National Association. Guest conducting highlights include the United States Air Force Concert Band, the inaugural Riverside County High School Honor Band and the School Honours Ensemble Program All-State Honor Band in Brisbane, Australia. He has collaborated with artists such as Michael Sachs, Christopher Martin, Andrew Bain, Michael McDonald and “Weird Al” Yankovic, and is credited on the album Map of the Soul: 7 by internationally acclaimed BTS.

An advocate for new music, McKeown has participated in numerous wind band consortiums and commissions, including Letter from Home (Copland/Belski) and The Ash Grove by Julie Giroux. His international conducting appearances include performances at Chicago Symphony Hall, the Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall, Queensland Conservatorium Theatre in Brisbane, and the Basilica di Sant’Ignazio in Rome.