KENDALL DEAN
BIOGRAPHY
Kendall Dean
Kendall Dean is a professional vocalist and multi-instrumentalist. She has a storied history of live performances, musical arrangements, and professional recordings. She prides herself on her unique sound and musical versatility, breaking boundaries with crossing genre borders.
Think Florence + the Machine meets Eivør and Enya, Kendall creates music of a Modern New Age, Folk Pop genre with a Celtic twist.
Her ethereal vocal melodies have been referred to as, "The voice of an angel", with similar vocal tonalities as the voices of Sarah McLachlan, Jewel, and Natalie Merchant, and her soaring, emotive violin riffs have been likened to the eclectic sounds of violinist Jean-Luc Ponty and Lindsey Stirling.
Kendall is a classically and traditionally trained violinist ( acoustic and electric ), a self-taught guitarist, and trained vocalist. She uses a Boss RC300 looping system to create colorful soundscape layers for her own originals and cover remakes when performing live. Her primary instrument is the violin, and she loops live string tracks with her 5 string electric violin.
Explore the site and learn more about the musician behind the music.
_______________
Kendall Dean has been playing the violin for over 25 years since the age of 8.
"I remember being a small child and watching a woman perform violin at my father's graduation ceremony and saying, 'That's what I want to play.' I didn't give up on it and begged my mother to let me take lessons. I was in love."
Her roots are from the rocky coastline of Maine, where she studied Irish, Cape Breton, Scottish, and Classical music for almost 10 years and has now been a violin teacher herself for many years. She grew up learning traditional fiddle tunes and technique with her Uncle and sang harmonies with her mother, who is a trained pianist and pipe organist. Also, her grandmother was a vocalist and guitarist in a Hawaiian style female trio and Dean feels that the love of music has been passed on to her, it's "in her blood".
Kendall believes that music has the power to heal and promote balance between the body and mind and the world around us. She has studied Music Therapy and Sound Healing and enjoys collaborating with various Yoga and Dance instructors as well.
She's been a member of various bands, from country music to borderline metal music, performing as an electric and acoustic violinist and as a vocalist, performing across the US and in Europe.
"I want people of all ages to be able to connect to my music. I want you to feel something. Connection is what life is all about."
She has studied courses with Berklee College of Music and has attended numerous workshops including one in Dunkeld, Scotland, training with renowned Scottish fiddler, Pete Clark and another in Austin, Texas for violin teacher training with the Suzuki Association of the Americas.
As a world traveler, Kendall Dean based herself out of Maui, Hawaii for almost 10 years. After the tragic Maui Wildfires in August of 2023, she started a new chapter and is now currently splitting her time between California and Ireland, where she is working on writing and composing her third album whilst immersing herself in the history and culture of Ireland, gaining inspiration from the people and landscape.
She released her sophomore album, "Catharsis", in April, 2020 and has music available for purchase online on all digital platforms and also in physical CD form. Please feel free to send an email to stay connected and up to date with performances/events and to help support her with doing what she loves- bringing the music to you!
Aloha and Sláinte Mhaith.