Biography
Kevin Wilt (b. 1984 in Detroit, Michigan) began studying music at age ten, quickly finding a balance between classical and popular repertoire, performing on piano, synthesizers, and percussion. His adventures in composition began by writing arrangements that he programmed into his keyboard. In 2006, he graduated with a Bachelors Degree in Music Composition from Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan, where he studied with James Hartway. He completed his Masters Degree in Music Composition at Michigan State University, under Jere Hutcheson and Charles Ruggiero, and his Doctorate in Music Composition with Ricardo Lorenz.
His music has been performed throughout the United States by beginning musicians up to professionals of the highest caliber. Recently, his music has received performances and readings by several college and professional ensembles, including a premiere performance of his wind ensemble piece Nevermore at the Indiana University School of Music, and a reading of Song of the Phoenix by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra under Maestro Leonard Slatkin. This season past several new performances of Nevermore, the world premiere of Fanfare for Winds with the Metropolitan Wind Symphony in Lexington, Massachusetts, and the world premiere of Mobilis in Mobile: Scenes from Twenty-thousand Leagues Under the Sea, commissioned by the MSU Philharmonic Orchestra. This fall will see the premiere of the wind version of Song of the Phoenix by Dr. Kevin Sedatole and the Michigan State University Wind Symphony.
Wilt is equally at home composing scores for film and television, providing scores for many locally produced films, earning him a Michigan Emmy® Award Nomination for Best Musical Composition. The fall of 2010 saw the world premiere of The Wars of Other Men, featuring a score conducted by Wilt, recorded live at Aashrum Studios in Metro Detroit. In 2009, his music was recorded by members of the New York Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera Orchestra as part of the NYU/ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop. He has scored several MSU-produced documentaries for the series Environment, and collaborated with fellow composer Matthew Schoendorff on the theme music for The Indie Film Show. In addition, Wilt has scored films produced by Detroit-area filmmakers, including A Little Knowledge – winner of the Detroit 2009 48 Hour Film Challenge.
In addition to being an active composer, he is an Adjunct Professor of Music at Madonna University and Oakland Community College, Music Director and Organist at New Life Presbyterian Church (East Campus), and Instructor of piano, percussion, and music theory at the Wayne State University Weekend School of Music.
He is a member of The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), The American Music Center (AMC), The Film Music Network (FMN), and the Michigan Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS). His works are published by the Whistling Vine Publishing Company.