ABOUT

Kevin Charoensri is a Thai-American composer, pianist, conductor, and arts advocate from San Diego, CA. Described by The Washington Post as offering a "bristling musical response," his music seeks to transcend the score, often centering stories from historically marginalized communities, particularly those within the AAPI community. Beyond composition, Kevin is an active public voice for the arts and representation, having appeared on CNN, NPR and several podcasts to speak about cultural advocacy and youth leadership in music.

Kevin made his international composing and conducting debut to a full-house at the Sydney Opera House in June of 2018, where he conducted his original work "Return," receiving recognition from the San Diego Union Tribune. Since then, Kevin has completed composer residencies at Northwestern University, UCLA, Texas Tech University, the University of Delaware, Cal State Fullerton, Cal State Long Beach, the Brooklyn Wind Symphony, and the Pacific Symphony Youth Wind Ensemble and Concert Band. His works have also been heard in notable concert halls such as the Sydney Opera House, Carnegie Hall, and Cornell's Bailey Hall. Notable compositions include "Rising Light" — a musical response to the post-COVID Asian hate, which was programmed by "The President's Own" United States Marine Band and subsequently acquired by the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

Kevin is an internationally active guest conductor and educator who has worked across the United States, Thailand, and Australia. As a guest conductor, he has led ensembles including the Pacific Symphony Youth Concert Band, as well as ensembles in Thailand and Australia. He has delivered guest lectures at Mahidol and Kasetsart Universities in Thailand, and will return to Kasetsart for a summer guest professorship — making him, at twenty-three, among the youngest to hold that distinction in the university's history. He has also led masterclasses at California State University, Fullerton and Texas Tech University. Deeply committed to educational equity, he actively supports underrepresented communities in both Southern California and Thailand, emphasizing mentorship, outreach, and self-advocacy to empower the next generation of young artists.

Kevin began his formal compositional education in 2019, participating in the Cleveland Institute of Music's Summer Festival as one of the select high school students and later being one of seven chosen for the San Francisco Conservatory of Music's summer composition program. He completed his BM in Music Composition at The University of Texas at Austin, where he was also the pianist for the University of Texas Jazz Ensemble. He is currently pursuing his master's in music composition at Michigan State University and serves as the electronic music teaching assistant.

Kevin's artistic portfolio spans orchestra, wind ensemble, chamber music, choral works, jazz ensembles, film scores, and popular music. From 2019–2021, he contributed to the Los Angeles pop music scene, working as a music producer, ghostwriter, engineer, and social media marketer for multiple artists. His contributions producing and ghostwriting compiled in hundreds of thousands of streams across streaming platforms.

At twenty-three, Kevin seeks to blend genres and bridge Asian and American cultures through his music and beyond, hoping to fuse his artistic pursuits with his passion for arts advocacy.