Kevin Ray

Bitter Jester Music Festival Director of Music, Judge, Audio Engineer, & Member of the Education Team

Kevin Ray is a composer, producer and percussionist. In addition to his freelance music work, he is also the Drum Line/Front Ensemble percussion instructor for the Glenbrook North High School Marching Band. Kevin was a three-time 3rd Place Winner of the Bitter Jester Music Festival with his band, The Ska-lers, before returning as a volunteer and judge. The Ska-lers first performed with BJMF in 2012.

Although he started to learn songwriting and mixing by making DIY recordings with The Ska-lers, his formal education began when he attended Berklee College of Music. At Berklee Kevin studied composition with Marti Epstein and marimba with Nancy Zeltsman. He subsequently received a Master’s Degree in Composition at Boston Conservatory at Berklee, studying with Eun Young Lee and Timothy McCormack.

Starting in 2021, Kevin began attending all BJMF concerts as a volunteer Audio Engineer, providing live mixes of selected songs for Winning and Wild Card performers. These mixes help bands to overcome a huge barrier to entry in the music world: producing recordings in order to share their music.

The studio recording process can be long and expensive and many performance opportunities require recordings to be submitted as a prerequisite. Live mixes can help to bridge this gap, allowing bands and solo performers the opportunity to get their music heard.

In addition to his mixing work, Kevin also provides competition performers with non-scoring written feedback as well as providing select verbal feedback for showcase artists during BJMF preliminary rounds. He officially became a scoring judge for the very first time at the 2021 BJMF Grand Finale and can’t wait to hear all the bands again!

In 2022, Kevin officially joined BJMF’s Education Team where he began making an impact on an organization that made such a big impact on him when he was a participant. Before the end of 2022 he had been asked to take on additional responsibilities as BJMF’s first ever Music Director, a title he still holds.

In 2023, Kevin - along with BJMF Audio Engineer Patrick Ditzel, BJMF Founder Nicolas DeGrazia, and Val’s halla Records owner Trevor Toppen - co-produced the first ever “Live and Bitter Jester Music Festival” double LP on vinyl! Check it out here!