Empire Wild is a genre-bending, crossover trio featuring classically-trained musicians as a vehicle for their shared love of musical exploration - fusing the sounds of pop, folk, Broadway and more into their songwriting and composition. Empire Wild was selected as an Ambassador Prize winner in the 2020 Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition.

The group’s debut EP Paper Seasons features all original songs, highlighting the Trio’s unique sound and instrumentation. Based in NYC, Empire Wild has brought its signature mix of original music, inventive covers, and twists on the classical canon to audiences across the country.

Last season the Trio delighted audiences with its signature mix of original songwriting and unique arrangements at venues across the country including a stop at South Miami-Dade Cultural Arts Center, a concert on the Harriman-Jewell concert series in Kansas City, and a day at the Kaufman Music Center’s Musical Storefronts in Lincoln Center. This fall will feature a Midwest tour through ten states along with educational workshops in Iowa and Ohio. 

Individually, all three musicians are committed to community engagement and teaching. Together as an ensemble, Empire Wild feels that it is important to prioritize community-oriented work and bring creative musical outlets and opportunities to students of all backgrounds and skill levels. They have shared their unusual versatility with students through workshops at University of Iowa, the Peabody Institute, and the Preucil School, among others. Equally at home in classrooms, intimate salons and large concert halls, Empire Wild brings a sense of community to every performance.

As passionate educators, Ken, Brandon, and Mitch find great fulfillment in sharing the joys of being an artist with communities of all ages both as a band and as individuals in their own professional work.

Ken spends much of his week wearing the cello teacher hat, teaching at Peabody Preparatory (MD), Westport Suzuki School (CT) and Lucy Moses School (NY) as well as privately, all while trying to convince his students that the cello is the best instrument ever.

Mitch, as a teaching artist for the New York Philharmonic for the last several years, has worked to get students excited about classical music, performed for thousands of students in neighborhoods throughout New York City, and wrote and designed interactive concerts and workshops.

Together as an ensemble, Empire Wild feels that it’s important to continue this community-oriented work and bring creative musical outlets and opportunities to students of all backgrounds and skill levels. We've also had a lot of fun sharing our unusual versatility with students through workshops at University of Iowa and Peabody Institute, among others.

In these workshops, students get to dip their toes into learning many of the extended techniques we use in our own songs (chopping, strumming, different types of grooves and rhythms). We will also teach melodies by ear, discuss practical music theory, work on improvising, and develop arrangement ideas and skills.

When all is said and done, we love performing our newly-created arrangements with the students! Below is a ‘final performance’ after a one-hour workshop at the Preucil School of Music where everything was taught by ear.