John David Kuvinka is an American-born Classical and Jazz pianist, conductor, and composer. From his birth Kuvinka was exposed to music through his father Michael, who studied at Berklee College of Music, majoring in composition and arranging. Michael, an accomplished Jazz composer and performer, won various awards from the Composers Guild and performed in many local ensembles in his youth. Being a trumpet player, in John's young years Michael attempted to teach him the instrument, but John quickly lost interest due to a lack of drive, not yet having the passion for music that his father had. However, over the years Kuvinka began to better appreciate his father's musical abilities. Michael taught John music theory and basic piano.

 

       Kuvinka began playing the organ at the age of five. During that time he saw the organ and music as merely a form of entertainment, and therefore did not progress in his playing until he was older. As he grew up his skills improved slightly, although he did not become seriously interested in music until his early teenage years. He grew up listening mainly to Rock and Jazz, his interest in Classical did not come into focus until he was in junior high school. Once he became more interested in music he began to more seriously study the piano and music theory, delving into the works of Beethoven, Bach, and Mozart, and the writings of Schoenberg, Fux, Tovey, and others. In high school he was a member of his school's Keyboard Ensemble for three years where his teacher further inspired him to become more active in music. He later began taking private lessons. With the piano as his main instrument he studied other instruments such as the trumpet, violin, clarinet, fife, guitar, and several others. Attending symphonic performances fostered a great interest in conducting in Kuvinka, so he began to study it independently. He has studied conducting materials from Oxford and Cambridge.

 

       Kuvinka's knowledge of composition was part passed on to him by his father and part self-taught, and his style can best be described as Romantic-Minimalist. Taking influence from the music of Ludwig van Beethoven, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Franz Liszt, and other Romantics, Kuvinka meshes the macabre with the complex and ornate. Painting pictures with music, he attempts to take his listeners to new heights of emotional insight into the mind of the serious yet jestful, somber yet energetic, simple yet cryptic.

 

       In addition to composition, Kuvinka gives private lessons in piano, music theory, and conducting. In his free time he enjoys performing for friends, nature walking, kayaking, reading, writing on topics such as philosophy, theology, and physics, spending time with family and loved ones, an occasional cigar and glass of Sherry, and further enhancing his musical library and repertoire.