Born in the Bronx and raised in the Harlem section of Manhattan before moving back to the Bronx, the music of Kevin Scott has been performed by the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Houston, Miinnesota, Phoenix, Shreveport and St. Louis under such notable conductors as Leonard Slatkin, JoAnn Falletta, Tito Muñoz, Leslie Dunner, Yoel Levi, Lan Shui and Andre Raphel, and was the recipient of the 1992 Detroit Symphony/Unisys African American Composers’ Forum award. 

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Scott’s interest in composition was ignited while he was attending Christopher Columbus High School in The Bronx by educating himself that led to hearing his early accomplishments read by the school’s orchestra and band. Upon graduation in 1974, Scott began formal lessons in composition with John Corigliano and Ulysses Kay at Herbert H. Lehman College, and continued his studies at the Mannes College of Music with Christine Berl and David Tcimpidis, in addition to conducting with Yakov Kreizberg.

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In 1984, Scott’s Fanfare G.A.F.: An American Overture was premiered by the Queens Philharmonic, which led to a series of commissions from the Brooklyn Philharmonic and Queens Symphony through the New York State Council on the Arts. In 1989, Scott was appointed resident composer for the RAPP Arts Center in Manhattan, writing scores for various theatrical productions including Thomas M. Disch’s Ben-Hur and new adaptations of Chekov’s The Sea Gull and Uncle Vanya.

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In addition to his works for orchestra and the theater, Scott has also composed music for chorus, wind ensemble, chamber ensemble and voice, in addition to underscoring various independent films that include The Avatar and the Neophyte and Hollywood Nights. His sixth string quartet received the first William Grant Still Memorial Commission, sponsored by St. Augustine’s College and Duke University, and premiered by the Ciompi Quartet. Recent works include the song cycle Metamorphoses and Transfiguration for soprano, horn and piano commissioned by The Dana Trio, the string quintet Hitch!, Night Journey for horn, violin and piano, the second, third and fourth little symphonies commissioned by the Lowell Chamber Orchestra and, in collaboration with the poet Magdalena Gómez, the oratorio Mother to a Stranger's Child for narrator, soprano, chorus and orchestra. In 2022, Scott was invited to serve as a faculty member of  the Alba International Music Festival's annual composition program in Italy, and has appeared as a guest lecturer at Bard College's music department focusing on contemporary orchestral repertoire with their graduate conducing students. He has  also recorded the music of Ulysses Kay for Albany Records.

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As a conductor Scott is a tireless advocate of programming new, unknown or unjustly neglected composers. He has served as music director or resident conductor of several groups in the New York area, including the Doctor's Orchestral Society of New York, the Schubert Music Society, the Central City Chorus and the Bronx Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared as a guest conductor with the Brooklyn Philharmonic, Orchestra Society of Philadelphia and the Varna State Philharmonic in Bulgaria. From 2006 to 2014, Scott served on the faculty of SUNY Orange County Community College in Middletown, New York, where he directed that college's concert band program, and from 2014 to 2018 served as the music director of the Maybrook Wind Ensemble. His recent guest engagements include conducting the Rockaway-Five Towns Symphony Orchestra and with the Springfield Symphony Orchestra (Massachusetts), where he has conducted that orchestra's annual Juneteenth Freedom Day concerts since 2023. In 2026, Scott will make his Carnegie Hall debut conducting Ēriks Ešenvalds' St. Luke's Passion for MidAmerica Productions. 

 

Scott's second little symphony has been recorded by Orlando Cela and the Lowell Chamber Orchestra for Navona Records, and has also contributed liner notes for new recordings of Bernard Herrmann's film scores for the California-based Tribute Film Classics label, and preface notes for several of Hugo Kaun's orchestral and chamber works for Musikproduktion Jürgen Höflich in Munich and for the music of William Thomas McKinley for Subito Music. He has also served on the music panel of the New York State Council on the Arts and is an adjudicator for The American Prize.

 

Scott's thoughts as a composer and conductor are reflected in William Banfield's book Musical Landscapes in Color: Conversations with Black American Composers, published by Greenwood Press.