Newfoundland-born composer, percussionist, and singer-songwriter David Kerr (b. 2000), has been composing for almost as long as he has been playing — garnering experience since as early as 2010. Having an affinity for metal and jazz, he focuses largely on the participatory attractiveness of his music (be it corporeal or incorporeal). Meaning he seeks to inspire physical motion/movement through groove or a strong emotional reaction through evocative musical devices.
On the popular music front, Kerr stylistically pins the emotional duress of post-hardcore and midwest-emo against the harmonic and conceptual creativity of progressive metal and jazz fusion, exploring the limits of what acoustic music can be while looking to bring a unique tone and perspective to familiar emotions and sentiments that are scarcely put to words. In this pursuit, he can be heard drawing inspiration from the likes of Claude Debussey, Ney Rosauro, Nikolai Kapustin, Periphery, Hot Mulligan, and Bilmuri. Mixing his diverse musical background and experience with playful yet vulnerable lyricism, he strives to bring his new, personal, creative twist to whatever genre he endeavors to explore.
Studying under the distinguished lineup of professors at Memorial University of Newfoundland while working towards his 2022 Bachelor of Music with Honours distinction in composition with a minor in jazz studies and a specialization in percussion, a hunger for knowledge and understanding of musical concepts left rumbling excitedly for more. Garnering performance experience with: orchestras, wind bands, choirs, marching bands, jazz big bands and combos, chamber music groups, pit orchestras, rock bands, world music ensembles, and a plethora of smaller ensembles; from St. John's, to Ottawa, to Hawaii, to Ireland; there is no stage that Kerr could shy away from.
Most recently, Kerr has been the recipient of such distinctions as an ArtsNL performing artist grant in 2022, the Bethany Danielle Pike Memorial Award for Music, the Equinor ArtsSmarts Scholarship, and the Clifford Crawley Music Composition Award. Additionally he has been featured on Jocelyn Leigh's "Famous To You," Gwyneth Covey's "Seasons," Venator's "Gang" and "Power of the Purple Flame," the Canadian Armed Forces 1st Royal Newfoundland Regiment Band’s “The Arms of Home,” and Home By Ten’s “HB10.”