Kevin Newton is a hornist, GRAMMY-nominated chamber musician and educator based in Manhattan. He is the horn player of Imani Winds and is an active freelancer in the greater New York area. While growing up in Virginia, his first music teacher, his mother, instilled in him a love of music-making’s collaborative nature which persists to this day. 

As a guest musician Mr. Newton has performed and/or recorded with Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Alarm Will Sound, Talea Ensemble, Harlem Chamber Players, Gateways Festival Chamber Orchestra, American Composers Orchestra, Tredici Bacci, Gil Evans Project and Roomful of Teeth. He has also performed on Broadway’s The Lion King as a substitute musician. In addition to Imani Winds he is a member of the Metropolitan Horn Authority and Tsons of Tsunami.

An advocate for new music, Mr. Newton has premiered pieces for horn by Erin Busch and José Manuel Serrano. As a chamber and orchestral musician Kevin has participated in premieres of works by Valerie Coleman, Jeff Scott, Andy Akiho, Paquito D’Rivera, Nathalie Joachim, Joy Guidry, Jessica Meyer, Carlos Simon and Saad Hadaad among many others. 

As a composer, Kevin has written pieces for solo horn and piano, most recently fulfilling a commission from the The Kayden Music Commissioning Program at the Juilliard School Pre-College with the piece Hill House. 

Mr. Newton formerly served as principal horn of the Waynesboro Symphony and, as an orchestral soloist, has performed works by Gordon Jacob, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, and Franz Strauss.

Kevin will be a featured artist at the 2024 International Horn Symposium and was a featured artist at the 2022 Southeast Horn Workshop. 

Mr. Newton joined the faculty of the Curtis Institute of Music in 2021. He is also on the horn faculty of Manhattan School of Music’s Precollege division and MSM Summer. Mr. Newton has delivered horn masterclasses at many institutions including Yale University, Cleveland Institute of Music, Boston Conservatory at Berklee, UNC School of the Arts, University of Denver, UNC Greensboro,  Montana State University, University of Arizona and Virginia Commonwealth University among others. As a member of Imani Winds he has taught chamber masterclasses at colleges across the country. He is honored to join the faculty of the 2024 Kendall Betts Horn Camp. 

Mr. Newton is currently pursuing a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at SUNY Stony Brook. He holds a Master of Music degree in orchestral performance from Manhattan School of Music and a Bachelor of Music degree from Virginia Commonwealth University. His primary teachers have been David Jolley, Dr. Patrick Smith and Iffet Araniti-Davis.