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Kevin Yost was a musical child, who at a
very early age demonstrated a keen sense of rhythm. This quickly
grew into a love of playing drums and soon after keys. Listening
to his father's Chuck Mangione records, his love of music continued
to grow throughout his youth. Yet his small rural farm town
in Waynesboro, PA USA had no outlets to develop a child’s
skill thus he turned to self-instruction over formal education.
The spark of jazz music was lit inside Kevin at this young
age; however growing up in the early 80's, he soon gathered
an affinity for the burgeoning electronic music scene. At age
eleven Kevin started DJing with a cheap set of turntables and
a mixer he got for Christmas. His skills quickly refined as
he met an older friend who introduced him to beat mixing. He
began to play school dances and other partie. He saved money
from his gigs and slowly put together a home studio. By the
time he was fourteen years old he purchased a drum machine,
a keyboard, and sequencer.
Propelled by this new ability to
create, at the age of seventeen Kevin decided to attend Berkley
College of Music. He later went on to Shenandoah Conservatory.
His main areas of study were music composition and percussion.
As a result of this formal training, his early childhood bonds
with jazz were reaffirmed, but his love of DJing and electronic
music still remained. By the time he left school he had all
the tools needed to work in many different genres. His first
concept was to combine all of his interests and create a jazz/electronic
fusion that could be played by a DJ.
At age 23
he took this on as his initial solo project and in 1995 eager
to let others hear his first creations he sent out demo tapes
to various independent labels. Out of this grew an affiliation
with New Jersey's i! Records. This new team effort between
the label and Kevin developed into many releases including
his groundbreaking album "One Starry Night". Unlike
anything ever done before it's percussive jazz electronic fusion
was met with open arms as it went on to sell over 50,000 units
worldwide.
This caught the ear of many major labels, which
enlisted Kevin to work with artists such as Eric Clapton, Everything
but the Girl, the Kodo Drummers, and Cirque de Soleil. Over
the past eight years Kevin has released over 70 vinyl records
and a mixture of CDs. His success has flourished both as a
producer and a DJ, traveling to many different countries and
playing some of the world's most respected venues and festivals.
This year Kevin has again challenged himself and endeavored
to create a completely live show under taking the orchestration
of a full band. Appearing in 2004 will be The Kevin Yost Group,
a six person group that will be touring throughout Europe this
summer.
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