Kevin Jensen

Kevin Jensen has enjoyed an eclectic career in music – one that has included a diverse mix of instrumental and vocal music: jazz, musical theater, computer, and MIDI technology, arranging, and writing. Mr. Jensen was the conductor and musical director for the Rockford Wind Ensemble starting with its founding in 2002 until retiring in 2022. His 35-year career as a music teacher included Eureka, Batavia, and Loves Park/ Machesney Park (Harlem) high schools. In 2014 he was given the Rockford Mayor’s Arts Award, and in 2015 was recognized as the “Outstanding Alumni” for the School of Music at Illinois State University, where he earned a degree in both instrumental and choral music education. While at ISU, he served as drum major of the "Big Red Marching Machine" and staff arranger for the School of Music. He studied composition with Roque Codero. 

Mr. Jensen is an acclaimed composer with nearly forty commercially published works and over two hundred freelance commissioned works to his credit. Over the years, he has composed or arranged music for virtually every genre: orchestra, chamber music, concert band, jazz combo, choir, marching band, commercial music, a full-length musical – the list goes on and includes over a hundred solo accompaniments for the Rockford Concert Band. Locally, he has been involved with Starlight Theater, the Rockford Symphony Nielsen Chorale, TubaChristmas Rockford, and the Rockford Concert Band. Jensen enjoys working as a guest conductor and clinician throughout the midwest. His wife, Amy, taught choir and piano classes at Hononegah High School for thirty years and was RSO Music Educator of the Year for 2020. She is currently leading the high school and middle school choirs at Rockford Christian Schools. Their three grown children also continue to teach and perform music.