Performances + Events
Peter Kenagy
Education and Training
BM and MM, New England Conservatory; DMA, University of Illinois. In high school and at the conservatory he had an opportunity to perform widely in the US and abroad, and to experience music and learn first-hand from many elders and jazz masters, including Lionel Hampton, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Hank Jones, J.J. Johnson, George Russell, Ray Brown, Elvin Jones, Ernestine Anderson, Benny Golson, Bob Brookmeyer, Barry Harris, Sonny Rollins, Slide Hampton and Steve Lacy.
Awards and Recognition
Nicholas Temperley Award for Excellence in a Dissertation
Peter Kenagy (Ken-NAY-Gee) is a bandleader, recording artist, freelancer, session
musician, and collaborator, with recordings available on Apple Music, Spotify, and
Bandcamp. Follow him with the tag @pete_kenagy.
Pete established the Mad Monkfish Jazz Orchestra in 2019, an octet which appears
monthly at the Central Square, Cambridge jazz venue The Mad Monkfish. The band
features outstanding players from the area playing his original music and arrangements
of jazz classics.
Kenagy has taught at Berklee College of Music, New England Conservatory,
Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and
College of the Holy Cross.
Kenagy’s written music is collected in the following published volumes: Peter Kenagy
Omnibus (2021); Peter Kenagy Nonet Music: forty-eight arrangements for jazz band
(2021); Peter Kenagy Music for Jazz Nonet (2022); Music for Jazz Nonet (2023) Peter
Music for Jazz Octet (2024); Music for Jazz Octet (2025).
His 22-minute piece for solo piano, Stuart Little: suite for piano after E.B. White’s tale,
was recorded by Carmen Staaf in 2022, and is available as a recording or a sheet
music.
Kenagy’s DVD and Vimeo release titled Penmanship: Fifty-One Short Music Videos
(2021) is a collection of short, whimsical performances by Peter on piano and DAW
featuring moving images which were originally aired on Instagram.
Kenagy has made five albums of his small-group music: Little Machines (2005), Double.
Happiness (2006), Space Western (2006), Coolidge (2007), and Standard Model
(2017).
Dr. Kenagy lectures on jazz history, improvisation and theory, and other music history
topics. His doctoral dissertation on the music of George Russell won the Nicholas
Temperley Prize for Excellence in a Dissertation in 2009 from the musicology
department at the University of Illinois. He has contributed writing to publications
including American National Biography, Jazz Perspectives, American Music, and the
Society for American Music. He has served as conductor, clinician, and adjudicator in
regional collegiate and secondary school festivals and educational residencies.
Curriculum Vitae
BM and MM, New England Conservatory; DMA, University of Illinois. In high school and at the conservatory he had an opportunity to perform widely in the US and abroad, and to experience music and learn first-hand from many elders and jazz masters, including Lionel Hampton, Harry “Sweets” Edison, Hank Jones, J.J. Johnson, George Russell, Ray Brown, Elvin Jones, Ernestine Anderson, Benny Golson, Bob Brookmeyer, Barry Harris, Sonny Rollins, Slide Hampton and Steve Lacy.
- Nicholas Temperley Award for Excellence in a Dissertation
Affiliated Departments and Programs
Jazz Studies
