Biography

Biography

Kevin Lawrence Merkel is a Classically trained composer and performer from Long Island, New York. He has worked as a professional brass Musician for over Twenty years and attended school for Film scoring , a life long dream, in 2013. Kevin is Happy to finally be composing for Film after a life of admiring and enjoying the art of scoring as written by some of the best the industry will ever know. Kevin lists James Horner, Danny Elfman, John Williams and Hans Zimmer as a few composers that have completely influenced his writing. 

Kevin was born In April of 1979 into a Family very rich with musical history. Music of all types was recorded back through history on both sides. Kevin was introduced to the piano at the age of two and had written his first piece of music by age six. Kevin would continue composing music from this point forward writing several programs and Easter cantatas for his local church. 

In 1988 Kevin was given the opportunity to study the trumpet while in grade school. Kevin would quickly become adept at playing and would be invited to perform in all county concerts for the next several years of his life. in 1996 Kevin wrote a piece to enter into the New York State Electronic music competition titled "Merkel's People". Kevin was one of ten finalists and his piece was performed on December Third 1996 at the concord hotel in upstate New York. 

at the same time in 1996 Kevin had enlisted as a musician with the united states marine corps. Kevin would attend basic training in july of 1997 and become a marine that October. He would serve until the year 2000 performing in many hundreds of concerts, parades and special events. The Marine corps helped to shape the man that kevin has become today. 

during the 2000's Kevin would continue performing and composing working at theaters and events in and around the new York city and long island area. in 2014 Kevin applied and was accepted into the pacific northwest film scoring program at the Seattle film institute. here he would learn the art of scoring for film under the direction of Dr. Hummie Mann, a two time Emmy award winning composer.  in 2015 Kevin graduated and returned to new York to pursue his new career in film. 

Kevin currently resides on long island and continues to both perform regularly and compose scores for film. some of his recent work can be found in the soundtracks section of this site. if you are in need of a score feel free to contact me via this sites contact page.

Home Recording Studio 2018

Recording at Studio X Seattle

Conducting at Studio X Seattle