Composer and flutist Bryan Kennard has written extensively for jazz ensembles and small groups, chamber ensembles, and full orchestra. His music has been performed at the Montreux and North Sea Jazz Festivals, the Jazz Educators Network Conference, the National Flute Association Convention, the International Double Reed Society Convention, and the Texas Music Educators Association Convention. Bryan has presented his music in workshops and presentations at the International Society for Jazz Arrangers and Composers Symposia, and he has worked privately with composers and arrangers including Gary Lindsay, John Daversa, Stephen Guerra, John Mills, Dave Morgan, and Maria Schneider.

Bryan regularly plays music in a wide range of styles such as classical chamber music, jazz, Brazilian choro, bluegrass, and other cross-over genres. As a bandleader, Bryan performs with his quintet and larger groups throughout Northeast Ohio and beyond, and often appears as a sideman and collaborator. He co-leads the Third Law Collective, a Northeast Ohio-based composer ensemble.

Bryan received his DMA in Jazz Composition from the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music where he served as a Teaching Assistant for the Studio Music and Jazz department as well as Coordinator/Composition Fellow for the Henry Mancini Institute. He earned his MM in Jazz Composition from the University of Texas at Austin, a MM in Flute Performance from Youngstown State University, and BM from Mercyhurst University. He was awarded the 2016 Stribling Award for Excellence in Jazz Studies while attending UT, was a Young Composer Showcase selectee at the 2019 JEN Conference, and received multiple Downbeat Student Music Awards for performance, composition, arranging, and engineering while a graduate student. Bryan has served as Director for The BOP STOP at The Music Settlement since 2022.