Professor John Kenny

Trombonist, composer, improviser, musical archaeologist and actor John Kenny has performed and broadcast as a soloist in over 40 nations as an interpreter of contemporary, improvised and early music. He is also a founding member of the European Music Archaeology Project (EMAP) and in 1993, he became the first person for 2000 years to play the giant Celtic war horn known as the Deskford Carnyx, which was discovered in northern Scotland. Since then, he has developed a unique repertoire for carnyx that can be heard on eight CDs albums, film soundtracks, live performances, and video games including ‘Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’. In 2011, he also became the first person to play the Tintignac Carnyx, discovered in southern France,  and in 2014 the Etruscan Litus and Cornu.    
           
Since 1997 he has been the Artistic Director of Carnyx & Co. a charitable company providing a unique interface between musical archaeology, the world of contemporary creativity, including invention of the unique virtual instrument HeadSpace, designed by Rolf Gehlhaar to enable tetraplegic trumpeter Clarence Adoo to return to international performance.                                            

Since 1983, he has been musical director of TNT Theatre Co and the American Drama Group Europe, based in Munich, composing and also frequently performing in music theatre productions that have toured globally for 40 years. 

John Kenny also teaches at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, St Mary’s School of Music in Edinburgh, and at the San Marino New Music Project. He is regularly invited to give masterclasses and lectures at conservatories and universities in Europe, the USA and Asia.

In 2017, he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Trombone Association in Los Angeles – one of only two British musicians to have received this distinction.
 

Find out more at www.carnyx.org.uk