RVSB INTERIM ARTISTIC DIRECTOR & CONDUCTOR/FALL 2026 CONCERT (Nov. 1st, 3pm @ SOU Music Recital Hall)
BRIAN KERNS
Brian Kerns is currently the Musical Director, Choral Director and Conductor for Ashland High School. With an extensive background in music including composing, arranging, and working with a diverse array of choirs, bands, theatres, operas and more, the Rogue Valley Symphonic Band is proud to collaborate and welcome Mr. Kerns as our Musical and Artistic Director for our first concert of the 2026/27 Season with our first concert taking place at the SOU Music Recital Hall in Ashland, Oregon on Sunday, November 1st at 3:00 PM.
Prior to his partnership with RVSB, Brian Kerns had worked with St. Mark Roman Catholic Church (Brooklyn, NY) as Choir Master, Conductor & Composer, Mary Baldwin University (Staunton, VA) as their Conductor, American Center for Musical Arts/Harlem School of the Arts (New York, NY) as Conductor & Assistant Conductor to David Gilbert, Cantiamo Opera Theatre (New York, NY) as Conductor & Composer, and many more.
Brian has an extensive background as a Composer (since 2015) and Arranger (since 1994), receiving the ASCAP Composer Award, 2010-2014 in the Concert Division. He attended Central Washington University with a major in Music Performance (Voice and French Horn) and the University of Washington with a major in Music Performance (Voice).
We welcome Mr. Kerns to our family where he will be working with our Artistic Committee to bring our audience a spectacular concert this fall where we will be Celebrating America’s 250th Birthday, among other themes. We hope you will be able to join RVSB and Mr. Kerns during this free concert performance.
BRIAN KERNS’ OFFICIAL BIOGRAPHY:
As a music director and conductor, Brian has programmed, conducted, rehearsed, and performed popular and classical music for choral, orchestral, opera, and concert performances, and sacred music for services and events, throughout the USA, Germany, and the Bahamas. As a composer and arranger, he has created numerous songs, arrangements and orchestrations of sacred music, opera, and music theatre for instrumental and vocal ensembles.
Local companies include Ashland High School, Barnstormers Theatre, Camelot Theatre Company, Livia Genise Productions, Medford Arts Commission, and several churches and synagogues. He finds joy in making music of all genres with both amateurs and professionals alike.
He currently serves as Choir Director and Director of Musicals as Ashland High School.
Guest Conductor: Martin Behnke
Following several years of teaching music in the California public schools and in colleges and universities in four other states, Martin Behnke came to Willamette University in 1979 as Director of University Bands, later serving as Chairman of the Department of Music as well.
In addition to his teaching background and 12 years as a professional trombonist, Dr. Behnke has maintained involvement throughout his career as a jazz pianist and composer.
In 1985 he received an Oregon Arts Commission Individual Artist Fellowship to study composition with Pulitzer Prize winning composer Norman Dello Joio, and in 1999, an Oregon Council for the Humanities Research Grant to present the life and music of Duke Ellington for the Smithsonian traveling exhibit "Beyond Category."
He has performed with Ray Brown, Herbie Mann, Benny Golson, Bill Watrous, Clairdee, and Ken Peplowsky, among others. He is an elected member of the Northwest Bandmasters Association.
Dr. Behnke has received numerous commissions for his instrumental and choral compositions, and his music has been published by Alfred Music, University of Northern Colorado Jazz Press, and his own Timberline Music Company.
Following his retirement from Willamette University in 2005, Dr. Behnke relocated to Southern Oregon, where for seven more years he directed the jazz ensembles and taught applied jazz piano and improvisation at Southern Oregon University.
He continues a full schedule as a composer, adjudicator, guest conductor, and jazz pianist.