In celebration of Jazz Appreciation Month, Pianist, Composer, and Conductor, Dr. Keith McCutchen, will share sections from his composition, "Jazz Vespers." He will be joined by the Kentucky State University Concert Choir for part of the performance as well.

Dr. McCutchen is Associate Professor of Music at Kentucky State University where he conducts the Kentucky State University Concert Choir, teaches Music Theory and History, Composition and Piano. As director of the concert choir, McCutchen completed two national tours including concerts in Washington D.C. and New York.

McCutchen’s compositions have been performed at the World Choir Games in Seoul South Korea, American Choral directors conferences throughout the United States, and recorded by the St. Olaf Choir and the American Spiritual Ensemble. His arrangement of Amazing Grace, written for the St. Olaf Choir, published by Earthsongs, is also in a collection entitled Gospels and Spirituals, published by Carus-Verlag.

His arrangement of Duke Ellington’s Come Sunday for 10 Pianos, commissioned by the College Music Society, was performed at the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) international conference in Anaheim California, (2018). Keith premiered his Jazz Vespers for Soloist, Chorus, Orchestra and Jazz Quintet with the Camerata Antiqua de Curitiba, Brazil, in 2016 and debuted his “Songs of Struggle, Hope and Triumph” with the Camerata in the fall of 2018. His Jazz Vespers is scheduled for Carnegie Hall in 2023.

As a jazz pianist McCutchen has been a guest with numerous artist including Vocalist Mel Torme’, Diane Schuur, Saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, and National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Masters, Bassist, Richard Davis and Saxophonist, Jamey Aebersold. His CD, Beginnings, (2018) is available on I Tunes.

McCutchen received his D.M.A. from Indiana University, his M.M. from the University of Minnesota, and his B.M.E. from the University of Kentucky.

He lives in Frankfort, Kentucky with his wife Noël and daughters, Lyvia, Ella, Maya, Morgan and Monica.