Kevin Whalen: Denver + Northern Colorado Based Trumpet / Jazz Performance and Education

Kevin Whalen is an active trumpet player, clinician, and educator based in Colorado. Whalen has performed throughout the United States and Canada as the jazz trumpet chair of The Glenn Miller Orchestra. Also busy in the Colorado music scene, he is a member of the 9th+Lincoln Jazz Orchestra, the Colorado Jazz Orchestra, and the Wil Swindler Elevenet and performs regularly in diverse musical settings throughout the region. He has performed with such artists as Greg Gisbert, Ron Miles, Don Aliquo, Clay Jenkins, Paul McKee, Ed Soph, Brad Goode, Alan Hood, Paul Romaine, Peter Sommer, Dana Landry, Erik Applegate, Jim White, and others.

Kevin Whalen is the Managing Producer of the UNC/Greeley Jazz Festival and the Instructor of Jazz Trumpet at the University of Northern Colorado. Whalen’s duties with the festival, the largest of its kind in the United States, include managing the year-round operations of the festival, writing grants in support of the festival’s many facets, and coordinating performances by over 250 school groups as well as evening concerts and clinics featuring some of the most prominent names in jazz. In addition to his work with the festival, Whalen is adjunct faculty at UNC, teaching jazz trumpet to students engaged in the acclaimed UNC Jazz Studies Program, and manages the UNC Sunset Jazz Artist Series and the UNC Jazz Camp.

A native of Albuquerque, New Mexico, Whalen holds a Bachelor of Music Degree in Music Education from Colorado State University and a Master of Music Degree in Jazz Studies from the University of Northern Colorado. While a student at UNC, Whalen was a Graduate Teaching Assistant in the Jazz Studies Department, held the jazz trumpet chair of the DownBeat Award Winning UNC Jazz Lab Band I, and was twice selected as a Finalist in the Jazz Division of the National Trumpet Competition.