He leads his namesake group, Kittel & Co.[3] and has worked with many prominent artists, including Béla Fleck, Abigail Washburn, Zedd, Fleet Foxes, Edgar Meyer, Chris Thile, Shawn Mendes, My Morning Jacket, Yo-Yo Ma, the Silk Road Ensemble, Paquito D’Rivera, Mark O'Connor, Turtle Island Quartet, Jon Batiste, Aoife O'Donovan, Jars of Clay, Darol Anger, and Tally Hall.
'Chrysalis,' a track on his group's 2018 album Whorls, was nominated for a Grammy for Best Instrumental Composition; the other nominees were John Williams, Alan Silvestri, Terence Blanchard, and Alexandre Desplat.
The work, "A Compass in the Tempest," was premiered with violinists Daniel Hope, Roby Lakatos, L. Subramaniam, Gilles Apap, Didier Lockwood and Mark O’Connor.
In 2020, alongside the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra and Eric Jacobsen he premiered a newly commissioned piece, Stones River, drawing upon early American music.
[11] As an arranger, he has worked with Aoife O'Donovan, Zedd, Sara Watkins, Shawn Mendes, Abigail Washburn, Theo Katzman, Yo-Yo Ma, the Silk Road Ensemble, Renee Fleming, the Turtle Island Quartet, Laura Veirs, Chris Thile, My Morning Jacket, John Mayer, Jars of Clay, Camera Obscura, and more.