MUSIC & THEATRE DEPARTMENT 

Email: kewatkin@ius.edu 
Office: OG 051 
Phone: (812) 941-2655 

Kenneth W. Atkins (Music & Theatre Department) began his music studies at the age of nine on violin and a year later on piano. A graduate of New Albany High School, he was a member of the NAHS Orchestra, A cappella Singers, NAHS Student Theatre, Floyd County (IN) Youth Symphony and was a student of Rubin Sher. He received his Bachelor of Music degree in Music Composition from DePauw University where he was a student of renowned composer David Ott. While at DePauw, he continued his studies of violin, viola, piano, conducting and theatre arts, and was a member of the DePauw Symphony Orchestra, DePauw Chamber Symphony, The Century Singers and the DePauw Concert Choir. His graduate studies in Music Theory and Composition were at the University of Louisville School of Music where his teachers were Claude Baker and Steve Rouse. In 1990, Mr. Atkins was the winner of the first Indiana Young Composers Competition sponsored by the New World Chamber Orchestra which premiered his work for full orchestra, Paradox, in the Spring of 1991. In 1996 Mr. Atkins was commissioned by Meet the Composer - Louisville Residency to compose a work for the Jefferson County (KY) All-County Orchestra for its 1996 Music Festival. This work, Frolic for Young String Orchestra, was also performed at the first annual IU Southeast Summer String Clinic. His music has been performed in Indianapolis, Louisville, Detroit and at Yale University. His Three Movements for Brass Quintet is published by Southern Music Company. His Meditation No. 2 for Orchestra was recently premiered by the Indiana University Southeast Orchestra.

As a music typographer, Mr. Atkins’ work has appeared in publications by C.F. Peters, G. Schirmer, Theodore Presser, Indiana University Press, Columbia University Press, Prentice-Hall/Simon & Schuster, Hal Leonard Corporation (including the John Williams Signature Edition series), Warner Bros. Publications (including the Donald Hunsberger Library), Southern Music Company, and numerous other publishers of music and music-related texts. He has also worked privately as a Music Typographer for composers Peter Schickele, Daniel Asia, Marc Neikrug, and Steve Rouse.