Kenny Kosek

Kenny Kosek is one of the most recorded fiddlers in America today, having been the feature soloist on hundreds of albums, soundtracks, and jingles. He can be heard on recordings by James Taylor, Jerry Garcia, David Byrne, Chaka Kahn, Willie Nelson, and John Denver. He has been a frequent guest player with the Late Night Band on Late Night with David Letterman. Kenny's distinctive roots music-inspired compositions have been used in the documentaries The Way West, The Donner Party, Harlan County, U.S.A., The High Lonesome Sound, and the Broadway musicals Big River and Foxfire, NBC's Another World, CBS's Guiding Light, and Fox's Kirby Kids. His most recent CD, Angelwood on Rounder Records was called "a lovely piece of work with a strong hint of the spiritual" (David Hinkley, Daily News); "an album that will surprise and delight fans of fiddle music in all its many forms" (Bluegrass Unlimited); and "Kosek's signature sound—a swinging, smooth, and creamy hot rise that is as hard as it rocks, has exponentially enhanced every project he's lent it to" (Village Voice).

Kenny's music instruction has been prolific. His teaching can be found on Homespun Tapes and Videos' Learning Country Fiddle, Learning Bluegrass Fiddle, and Bluegrass Classics. He was a guest instructor at the Falun Folk Festival, Sweden, Tonder, Denmark Festival, the Sore Fingers Music camp, Cotswalds, England, the Big Apple Bluegrass Festival (1998-2002), and the Rathcoole, Ireland Folk Arts Festival (2004). He is a staff instructor in country fiddle at the Turtle Bay Music School in New York City. Kenny appeared in the movies They All Laughed, and The Stepford Wives. On Broadway, Kenny's theatrical work includes The Robber Bridegroom, Platinum, Play Me A Country Song, Foxfire, Big River, Jerry Garcia on Broadway, and Footloose. Off-Broadway, he performed in Feast Here Tonight, Das Barbecu, That and the Cup of Tea, A Celtic Christmas, Lost Highway, and Picon Pie, among other theatrical endeavors.

As a writer and humorist, Kenny has contributed to The National Lampoon and has been in demand as a writer of liner notes for a variety of artists from 1980 to the present.