Birthday:
June 11
Hometown:
Wyckoff, New Jersey
College Attended:
Northwestern University
Favorite Beatles Song or 19th Century President:
Dear Prudence
Email:
kevin@thehousetheatre.com
A graduate of the Northwestern University School of Music, Kevin O'Donnell has been the composer for nearly 30 pieces of theatre since 2002, and over 40 dance pieces, receiving 4 Jeff Nominations for Original Music and 2 nominations for Achievement in Dance from the Chicago Music and Dance Alliance. He has worked extensively with The House Theatre of Chicago, The Hypocrites, Redmoon Theatre, and the choreographer Molly Shanahan, for whose Mad Shak Dance Company he was composer-in-residence from 1996 to 2004 as well as being a dancer from 1994 to 2000. Perhaps never a great dancer, he tried very hard, and definitely improved over the six years. Additionally he has worked with Lookingglass Theatre Company, ATC, Collaboraction, Strawdog Theatre, and the choreographers Julia Rhodes, Margi Cole, Shirley Mordine, and Jan Bartozek.
Having been spoiled with the creative outlet of dance he has tried to avoid theatre projects that only amount to writing scene-change music. Which is good, because, truly, he is not very good at writing scene-change music. In dance he worked at developing music that could rely heavily on repetition, with the goal of hearing things change slowly over time, either by the fact that a listener's perception of repeated material will change over time, by slowly altering the material, or by juxtaposition which, in turn, can make previously stated material literally different, though only by the nature of it's harmonic or rhythmic context having changed. In the theatre he has attempted to continue working in this way, though through a more cinematic type of underscoring, and the weaving together of "character" and "setting" themes with moments more featured, such as song or movement sections. "Salao" (Redmoon), "Machinal" (Hypocrites), and "The Rocket Man" (House) were all first-time collaborations with those companies, all significantly underscored or music-driven, and all served to shift O'Donnell's focus from dance to the theatre. As in dance, he sees himself as composing movements of a suite, but with the additional source material of characters, story, and setting, to fuel the work.
In addition to composing, Kevin has recorded and toured throughout North America and Europe as a drummer, and a drummer who almost exclusively plays with brushes, at that. He has been on all of Andrew Bird's records, as well as recording with the Parisian singer Emily Loiseau, and the Bloodshot artists Kelly Hogan and Jon Rauhouse, amongst others. For the jazz label Delmark Records he has released two albums for which he wrote, arranged, and drummed. Sometimes with sticks. Additionally, Redmoon and Mad Shak have released scores of O'Donnell's, and later this year his score for the House's "Rocket Man" will be released.
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