Kevin Payne is active as a recitalist, accompanist, and continuo player. Recent ensemble work includes performances with Tempesta di Mare, il Giardino d’Amore, New York City Opera, Juilliard415, Artek, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, Yale Schola Cantorum, and Hesperus, and he has worked with noted conductors including William Christie, Andrea Marcon, Richard Egarr, Monica Huggett, Jordi Savall, and Masaaki Suzuki. Performance venues include Carnegie Hall, Alice Tully Hall, Morgan Library, Brooklyn Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Kimmel Center in Philadelphia, Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., National Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan, and the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden, Germany.
Payne holds both a Bachelor of Music and a Master of Music degree from the Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Maryland, where he studied Renaissance lute with Mark Cudek and theorbo with Richard Stone. He was the first lutenist to be accepted to the Juilliard School, where he received a Graduate Diploma in Historical Plucked Instruments with Pat O’Brien. Kevin has had additional studies with Ronn McFarlane and performed in master classes for Paul O’Dette, Stephen Stubbs, and Hopkinson Smith. Payne and his wife, cellist Caroline Nicolas, currently work and live near Seattle, Washington.
