Kevin McFarland

Kevin McFarland is best known as the founding cellist of the world-renowned JACK Quartet, with whom he traveled across five continents, collaborated with a diverse array of composers, and performed up to seventy concerts a year. After his final appearance with JACK he relocated from New York to Colorado, where he now lives with his human partner and canine best friend. Kevin is a member of the Nebula Ensemble, an award-winning Colorado-based experimental music group that features a number of DU Alumni. He also frequently performs with Wild Beautiful Orchestra, a collective of Denver-area musicians led by fellow DU Music Theory instructor Dr. Chappell Kingsland.

Past guest performances include appearances with the International Contemporary Ensemble, Alarm Will Sound, Ensemble Signal, Talea Ensemble, and Wordless Music Orchestra. Kevin's composition works have been performed by vocalist Abigail Fischer, Hutchins Consort East, the Deviant Septet, and DU students and faculty as part of the Lamont Composers Concert Series (LCCS). His first published essay appears in Performing Xenakis from Pendragon Press. His current musical focus gravitates around composition, electronic music, and solo and chamber music performances.

Kevin received his Master’s Degree from the Lamont School of Music in 2024, where he studied composition with Sean Friar and Nathan Hall. Kevin also holds a Bachelor's Degree from the Eastman School of Music where he studied composition with Robert Morris, David Liptak, Steven Stucky, and Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, and cello with Steven Doane.