Kevin Isaacs

Professor of Music
Associate Chair, Coordinator of the Master of Science in Music Education degree program
Concert Choir, Chamber Singers, Applied Composition, Form & Analysis Member of the Graduate Faculty

Dr. Isaacs, who began his tenure at Western Connecticut State University in 1990, is Professor of Music teaching courses in theory, composition, and choral studies. Additionally his duties include serving as the associate chair of the department and coordinating the graduate degree program in music education. Kevin was the recipient of the inaugural WCSU Excellence in Teaching Award during the 2007-08 academic year. For the 1995-96 school year, Dr. Isaacs was a Mellon Foundation Faculty Fellow at the School of Music and Institute of Sacred Music of Yale University.

Prior to his work in the Northeast, Isaacs was Visiting Professor of Composition at the University of Arizona. He received his Bachelor's and Master's degrees in Theory and Composition from Texas Christian University and a Doctorate in Composition and Choral Conducting from The University of Arizona under the tutelage of the celebrated composer, Robert Muczynski, and choral mentor, Maurice Skones.

Under his leadership the WCSU Choral Program has grown and flourished. The Concert Choir has performed with local symphonies, headlined five times with the New Haven Symphony, twice with the Ridgefield Symphony, and combined with the Texas Christian University choirs for concerts at Carnegie Hall with Skitch Henderson and the New York Pops Orchestra. Additionally, they were selected for performance at the Connecticut Music Educators Association All-State and In-Service Conference.        
         
Professor Isaacs' musical sphere includes writing commissioned compositions, adjudicating, and conducting All State, regional, and other honor choirs. Additional conducting opportunities have included The Charles Ives Symphony and Festival Chorus, The Camerata Chamber Orchestra, and four years as Music Director of the Christ Chorale, a Danbury area adult ecumenical choral ensemble. 

Kevin's compositions are commissioned and performed by amateur and professional performers and ensembles across the nation. The Ojai Camerata, a professional ensemble in southern California, recently premiered a set of three commissioned choral works entitled, “life rounded with sleep.” “Unnecessary Roughness” for percussion ensemble was premiered in March 2007 at the MENC Eastern Regional Conference in Hartford, CT. Luther College in Decorah, Iowa premiered a new commissioned choral work, O Frondens Virga, at the North Central convention of the American Choral Directors Association in March of 2008. In 2001, CRI Records released on CD, 4 WHEEL DR., a multi-movement work for saxophones and piano, commissioned by Dan Goble, Chair of the WCSU Music Department. His work, TRINITY SITE, for wind ensemble was nominated for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize for music composition. Mark Foster Music and PerCel Music have published Professor Isaacs’ works.  Kevin is a proud member of BMI, Broadcast Music Incorporated.

Kevin lives in Brookfield, Connecticut with his wife, Debra, and their three sons, Kameron, Zachary, and Jackson.

isaacsk@wcsu.edu