I’m a freelance composer living in Winnipeg, MB, Canada focusing on choral and instrumental works for ensembles, as well as music for video games. Here’s my performance bio:

Kenley Kristofferson is a composer for concert band, concert choir, symphony orchestra and video games. Growing up as a euphonium player in Gimli, Manitoba, he later went on to complete his B. Mus and B. Ed degrees from the University of Manitoba and became one of the music teachers at Lord Selkirk Regional Comprehensive Secondary School in Selkirk, MB. In 2019, he completed his Master of Music in Composition from Brandon University, studying under Dr. T. Patrick Carrabré.

His work The Meeting Place won the 2016 Canadian Band Association Composition Competition (now the Howard Cable Memorial Prize in Composition). His music has been recorded by the Arizona State University Wind Orchestra, Barrett Choir, and Choral Union, the University of Northern Colorado Wind Ensemble, the Cleveland Winds, the University of Manitoba Wind Ensemble, and the Winnipeg Wind Ensemble.

He has written commercial work for video game franchises such as Betty Boop, Disney’s DuckTales, KRE-O and Warhammer 40,000. The score for his short film on the early life of astronomer Carl Sagan, Star Stuff, was nominated for Best Original Score in the “Short” category in the 2016 International Sound and Film Music Festival in Croatia.

He currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

(And hey, I’m married to an amazing woman and I have two wonderful kids.)

So, I teach Music at Lord Selkirk Regional Comprehensive Secondary School (*whew!*), specifically Jazz, Music History, Theory, Concert Band and Composition.  If you want to change the world, the first place you start is the school 🙂

While I’ve written radio plays and texts for choral music, my main wheelhouse has been composing, specifically for concert band, concert choir, symphony orchestra, and video games.

I used to host a podcast called Into the Score about the in-depth study of music from video games, which is a field that I’m still really passionate about.  I also wrote, directed, and acted in a radio play called The Constant, which was about five friends trying to manage their friendship and lives after they all left home.

All of these things come down to one of my most intense passions: Telling stories.  The story binds us together.  It teaches us about ourselves and the world around us.  It shines the light into dark corners of our hearts and minds, revealing that which has remained hidden with or without our knowledge.