about jared

Folk musician, jazz vibraphonist, dancer, and composer Jared Kirkpatrick (he/they) is a rising presence on the East coast.  He has toured and performed on stages both nationally and internationally, and is now beginning a career as a musician, composer, and audio engineer in North Carolina. 

Brought into a world of Appalachian music by folk revival parents in Chapel Hill NC, he and his two siblings began an immersive life in folk traditions, both relating to social dance and to music.  Jared began formal musical instruction with classical violin study at the age of 4, and shortly thereafter a study of jazz and rhythm tap with Mr. Gene Medler. At the age of 9, Jared was accepted into the North Carolina Rhythm Tap Ensemble (NCYTE) under the direction of Mr. Medler, and with the company, began performing at local schools, festivals, and corporate events across the country including shows at the Kennedy Center, the Durham Performing Arts Center, and on Broadway at Symphony Space. In his final season with the company, Mr. Kirkpatrick composed and set a piece of choreography on the company, premiered at the Carolina Theatre in Durham NC in April 2017. Centered around electronic MIDI trigger pads, the dancers perform choreography that includes striking these pads to produce synthesized music and samples making up the original score.  In the spring of 2017, he was invited on the radio show WCHL in Chapel Hill both to introduce the show and perform an excerpt.

While performing with NCYTE, Jared pursued a self-taught track in piano and continued with classical violin study.  Balancing a strong technical foundation with new inspirations, he wanted to explore what he found with improvisation. Dance proved to be just one of many platforms where connection and improvisation come together so beautifully. In high school, Jared began exploring the vibraphone as an instrumental approach to the harmony of artistic connection and improvisation. Developing a love for the instrument’s unique sound, he began preparing for a college degree in that field, studying with Jon Metzger at Elon and Juan Alamo at UNC, and going on to study with Tony Miceli and Terell Stafford at Temple University, earning a BM in Jazz Vibraphone Performance.

In the fall of 2019, Mr. Kirkpatrick received the prestigious CARAS Grant from Temple, awarded to just 20 individuals out of the entire student body.  His project, “Jazz Malletrad,” is a collection of arrangements of both original tunes and traditional New England fiddle tunes, arranged with jazz harmony for mallet percussion.

Currently, Jared performs and plays piano, mandolin, fiddle, and foot percussion for contra dances (a form of community folk dance) with his bands Starling (with Mo Brachfeld) and Flamingo Sketches (with Tom Krumm), touring around the continental US.  He also regularly explores solo works and looping projects in various livestream concerts and videos. Jared’s focus now rests on the recording and release of his debut solo piano album, Everpresent.