ABOUT

Kevin Charoensri (b. 2003) is a Thai-American San Diego native who now resides in Austin, studying music composition (BM) at the University of Texas at Austin.  Charoensri began writing music at age 12, and he has written works for band, orchestra, choir, chamber music, EDM, big band, jazz combo, and film scores. 

Charoensri currently studies with Omar Thomas at UT Austin, and has studied with Donald Grantham, along with being heavily involved with other faculty on staff, Yevgeniy Sharlat, Russel Podgorsek, and Januibe Tejera. He is currently a BM Composition major, as well as a piano principal, taking lessons in both classical and jazz styles, studying with piano professors Gregory Allen, Patti Wolf, and Sean Giddings. He is also the pianist for the University of Texas’s Jazz Ensemble. 

In June 2018, Charoensri conducted a performance of his Return for Band with 80 musicians at the Sydney Opera House in front of an audience of 2500. The performance received recognition from the San Diego Union Tribune. 

In Summer 2019, Charoensri attended the Young Composer Program at Cleveland Institute of Music, studying with Dr. Keith Fitch. He was also one of seven composers selected to attend the four-week Summer 2019 workshop at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music under Mr. Daniel Wood. In addition to guidance by high school band director David Hall, Charoensri has studied composition privately with Dr. Daniel Temkin and Dr. Jules Pegram.

In September of 2022, Charoensri’s work “Rising Light” was premiered by the University of Texas Wind Symphony under Dr. Ryan Kelly. The piece was well-received and Charoensri’s work has had several performances at major universities. He has also been on several guest composer visits/residencies at schools such as the University of Delaware (CBDNA performance at Cornell University), Texas Tech University, Texas A&M Commerce, Orange County School of The Arts, UCLA, Texas A&M Tarleton, Cal State Fullerton, and the Pacific Youth Wind Ensemble.