Kevin Kastning

Kevin Kastning (born 1961 in Wichita, Kansas) is an American guitarist, composer and musical instrument inventor.

Born in 1961 in Wichita, Kansas, Kastning's father was a musician, and Kevin began on trumpet at age 7.

In 1985, Kastning moved to Boston, Massachusetts, where he pursued graduate studies at Berklee College of Music for 2 years.

[4] At Berklee, Kastning studied with Walter Beasley and John la Porta while being privately tutored by guitar legend Pat Metheny.

Since that time, Kastning has made numerous notable collaborative contemporary classical guitar recordings, which are largely improvised.

Irish painter, Ken Browne's March 2011 exhibition 'Odyssey II'[5] at the Origin Art Gallery[6] (Dublin) featured abstract paintings based on Kastning's music.

[11] In 1990 Kastning was invited by colleague and fellow guitarist to form the KastningSiegfried Duet Project,[12] and over the next several years they wrote and recorded 5 albums of acoustic, experimental classical guitar compositions which were all released on the label, Greydisc.

[14] Together they have released multiple albums, on the Greydisc label, each of which is completely improvised, or composed in real time within the studio.

[15] Szabo and Kastning toured Hungary[16] in 2009[17] with guitarist, Dominic Miller,[18] who is well known for playing with Sting (musician).

[19] In 2012 Kastning and Wingfield released a second album of wholly improvised ambient duets entitled "An Illustrated Silenece".

[20] During the 2009 Szabo/Kastning European tour, Kastning recorded a trio album, entitled "Triptych", with Szabo and percussionist, Balazs Major on location in Nograd.

[22] Kastning toured Europe a second time in March 2012 with Szabo and Major in support of Triptych with a concert entitled "Kontaktus".

In 2012, Kastning released a duo album with longtime musical collaborator Carl Clements entitled "Dreaming As I Knew".