Brian Kendrick

Brian Kendrick is Director of Jazz and Percussion programs at San Joaquin Delta College, teaches jazz and drum set at University of the Pacific’s Jazz Studies program (formerly the Brubeck Institute), and teaches regularly at summer camps and colonies. He currently maintains an active performance schedule playing jazz, Broadway, contemporary, orchestra, and chamber music on the West Coast. Kendrick is currently a sponsored artist of Zildjian Cymbals and Vater Sticks and Mallets.

Kendrick holds Bachelor and Master of Music degrees in Percussion Performance from Texas Tech University and a Master of Science degree from Syracuse University. He has performed throughout North America and Europe. Kendrick performed and taught in Texas (San Antonio Symphony and taught various high schools throughout Dallas Metroplex, Houston, and San Antonio/Austin), Los Angeles (Symphony West), and New York (Syracuse New Music Society, Salt City Collective, Blue Norther, and percussion and drum set instructor, Syracuse University), prior to moving to Northern California.

He is active as a clinician and adjudicator with jazz honor bands, professional organizations such as Jazz Educators Network and Percussive Arts Society, summer camps such as Cazadero Music Camp and Pacific Jazz Camp, and numerous festivals throughout the West Coast. His orchestral work on the West Coast includes performing with Sacramento Philharmonic, Sacramento Chamber Orchestra, Stockton Symphony, Fresno Philharmonic, Napa Symphony, Bear Valley Music Festival Orchestra, and various opera and chamber ensembles.

As principal percussion/drum-set performer at California Musical Theatre (known as “Music Circus”), Kendrick has performed for twelve years with the top-call Broadway performers and conductors in California’s capitol city. Summers include 100-plus services per season, for productions such as In the Heights, Miss Saigon, Spamalot, Oklahoma, 42nd Street, Chorus Line, and many more, in the 3,000-plus seat theatre in Sacramento.

Kendrick also has performed regularly with Broadway touring productions and other national acts such as Johnny Mathis, Kristin Chenoweth, Michael Feinstein, Carol Channing, Henry Mancini, Roger Williams, Motown, and Beautiful: The Carole King Story. In his role as jazz and percussion educator/performer, Kendrick has worked and recorded with Eric Merianthal, Bob McChesney, Bobby Watson, Greg Tardy, Jigs Wiggam, Carl Allen, Marvin Stamm, Chris Brubeck, Frank Morgan, Eddie Gomez, Carlos Caro, Essiet Essiet, Ari Honig, Donny McCaslin, Ed Simon, and Mads Tolling. Kendrick presently performs and records with the Patrick Langham Quintet, Joe Mazzaferro, and Dharma Orquestra.

Kendrick’s students have excelled in their own performance trajectories, going on to study with top scholarships and assistantships at New England Conservatory, Juilliard School of Music, Berklee College of Music, The New School, University of Southern California, Texas Tech University, North Texas University, Belmont University, University of Tennessee, Arizona State University, University of Nevada Las Vegas, CSU Northridge, CSU Long Beach, University of the Pacific, and other regional California universities. Kendrick’s graduates include professional performers such as New York artists Chad Lefkowitz Brown, Lucas Pino, Zach Brown, Lewis Sweatt, Los Angeles artists Malachi Whitson (Monk Institute) and Mike Rocha (Gordon Goodwin’s Big Phat Band), and San Francisco Bay Area’s Mike Quigg and Giulio Cetto.