Kevin Brawley
Founder of Kinetic Development, Creator with Studio Time With Mr. B
Education:
Bachelor of Music Education, UNC Charlotte (2013)
Hometown: Charlotte
A guitarist and singer, Kevin Brawley performs and tours with fellow UNC Charlotte music alumni John Woodall and Edward Bender as the band Water From Fire. The band put a new album out in the spring of 2020, and Kevin and John were key performers in the UNC Charlotte April 30 Remembrance Concert.
But Kevin is perhaps best known as “The Notorious Mr. B.” The music teacher at Torrence Creek Elementary School in Huntersville for a decade, he developed a reputation for an innovative and inclusive approach to teaching. He is the creator of “Studio Time with Mr. B,” an elementary school assembly and workshop program that teaches ELA concepts using music, movement, and technology. He is also the creator of the “START NOW” series – a unique assembly for middle and high school arts students delivered through live performance and collective music creation. (Check out his “Virtual Virtuosos” online general music education video channel on YouTube!)
In 2013 he founded The Quarter Notes, an after-school choir for fourth and fifth graders. Open to all students without audition, The Quarter Notes has repeatedly been named one of the top ensembles across all grade levels of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools (CMS). He has presented “Seven Strategies for Teaching General Music to Students with Autism” to both the North Carolina and Virginia state music educators’ conferences.
In 2018 Brawley was hand-picked by the superintendent of Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools to give the opening address to all 15,000 CMS teachers before the start of the 2018-2019 school year. The following spring he was named a 2019 Music Teacher of Excellence by the Country Music Association Foundation and received a “10 Under 10” award from the UNC Charlotte Alumni Association. In 2020 he was named the UNC Charlotte Music Department Distinguished Alumnus.