Dr. Kevin Garnica, a native of Southern California, has been studying piano since the age of five and has been composing since the age of eight. His career highlights include several Central/South American tours; a self-produced CD; performances with orchestra throughout Europe and Southern California; winning the 1995 ASCAP National Composition Competition; receiving the John Williams grant for composition; and other awards, honors, and scholarships.  Mr. Garnica is also a freelance collaborative pianist; he has made recordings and given recitals with several members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic including concertmaster Martin Chalifour.  In 2000, he participated in Songfest with Martin Katz.

More recently, Dr. Garnica has worked at Pasadena City College as a theory tutor and student accompanist, and was the recipient of the Faculty Honors Extraordinary Award for Outstanding Academic and Musical Achievement.  He has also worked as a collaborative pianist at Chapman University; California State University, Long Beach; California State University, Fullerton (as accompanist for the musical theater department); and Biola University, where he served as staff accompanist from 2005 through 2008.  During the years 2005 and 2006 he was the staff pianist at the Hawaii Performing Arts festival.  He participated in the Music Academy of the West in 2008 and worked as staff pianist at Meadowmount String Festival in 2009.

Dr. Garnica received a bachelor of music degree in piano performance and master of music degree in composition at California State University, Fullerton under Eduardo Delgado and Dr. Lloyd Rodgers, respectively.  In 2005 he received the Undergraduate Keyboard Area Award for his accomplishments on the piano, and in 2008 he received the Graduate Composition Award for his outstanding thesis composition.  He is also a member of The National Society of Collegiate Scholars and is the recipient of the Jim Hulgan Award.  In 2011, he received his doctorate degree in collaborative piano at the University of Texas, Austin, under a full assistantship;  he was a student of Anne Epperson.  Presently, he is adjunct faculty and staff pianist at Biola University and also the pianist for the wind trio Triple Entendre. He is a lifetime member of the Pi Kappa Lambda National Music Honor Society.