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Come join us for our General Meeting and Program featuring Dr. William Kenlon

For a brief period in and around the 1960s, several musicians with rigorous classical training and jazz experience managed the unlikely feat of achieving success as in-demand composers of film music, award-winning co-writers of popular songs, and well-known public figures in the wider cultural sphere. In this multimedia presentation, composer and professor William Kenlon will examine the music and careers of three such musicians: Henry Mancini, Burt Bacharach, and Quincy Jones. Citing original research at the Library of Congress as well as decades of music and publications, Dr. Kenlon will guide attendees through the musical and cultural forces that came together to make possible these composers’ unconventional and influential careers.

Dr. William Kenlon (b. 1983), based in Washington D.C., is a composer specializing in music for chamber, choral, and jazz ensembles. Described as “pointed and groovy” (New Music Box), Kenlon’s music has garnered praise for its “lyrical personality that is original and strong,” and for its sophisticated tonal explorations: “solid without being dense, clear without being sparse, and ever-changing without being random” (Boston Musical Intelligencer). Enjoying frequent performances across the U.S. and in Europe, Kenlon has studied with composers from a variety of traditions and backgrounds, including John Hilliard, Jason Haney, Chuck Dotas, John McDonald, and Mark Edwards Wilson; he has also taken lessons with Forrest Pierce, Gabriela Lena Frank, Stacy Garrop, and Libby Larsen, among others. Kenlon has studied at McGill University and at the New England Conservatory, and holds the BMus degree (magna cum laude) from James Madison University, the MA from Tufts University, and the DMA from the University of Maryland. He was a Visiting Professor of Music at St. Mary’s College of Maryland in 2017, and since that time, he has maintained an active private studio and taught at the University of Maryland, Catholic University, and American University. He currently serves as Lecturer and Coordinator of Music Theory & Composition at Howard University.