Kutztown University announces Rock Ensemble Students for 2019-2020

The Kutztown University Rock Ensembles have announced their audition results for their Rock Ensemble I, II and III groups for the 2019-2020 year.

For the past two years, Rock Ensemble I has been named by DownBeat Magazine as one of the premiere undergraduate ensembles of its kind.

Under the direction of professor Kevin Kjos, KU Rock Ensembles respect the tradition of American rock and soul music while looking to the future to give the students who play and sing in these groups an all-encompassing view of the American musical style that took over the world. Students perform music from the rock genre and all its subcategories: indie, funk, soul, rhythm and blues, folk, country and more. During the past year, the ensembles have performed music as far ranging in style as Belinda Carlisle, Thank You, Scientist, The Main Squeeze, Queen, The Beatles, Tower of Power, Living Color and more.

Through participation in the Rock Ensembles, student musicians get a taste of the real world and the music they will be asked to play and create in the commercial marketplace. With the guidance of their professors, students learn to write their own arrangements for a band with full rhythm sections, horns and multiple vocalists, prepare their own parts based on recordings and charts and record and perform at a professional level.

Rock Ensemble I records at least twice an academic year and produces an annual CD (or CDs). The recordings are recorded, mixed, mastered and produced by professional sound engineers Steve Jankowski and Johannes Lang and KU students.

Full roster with instruments and sections can be found here. For more information, visit the KU music ensembles website.