Avril Kinsey

Dr Avril Kinsey is a concert guitarist and commissioned composer from South Africa.

Kinsey is an award-winning and internationally acclaimed musician. She received her Masters in Music (cum laude) and in April 2018 she was awarded the prestigious Doctor of Music degree in Composition for her 93 minute portfolio of scores. Kinsey is founding director of the Cape Town Academy of Music, the Cape Town International Guitar Festival and the Avril Kinsey Classical Guitar Competition. Over a thousand performances of her African-inspired compositions for classical guitar have been performed world-wide to critical acclaim.

Her orchestral works have been performed by the Cape Town Philharmonic Orchestra and the KZN Philharmonic Orchestra. “Overall VULCANUS is an impressive work that deserves live performance. The orchestration demonstrates a sound knowledge of the craft the dramatic purpose is secure and compelling.” Professor Philip Grange, University of Manchester, UK.

She lectures at the Cape Town Academy of Music in guitar (classical), piano, voice, as well as theory and composition. Her international pre-degree certificate courses with practical musicianship, entrepreneurship, songwriting and music education streams have helped students bridge the gap between school music, university and pursuing a professional music career. She has given guitar talks and master classes at the Royal Academy of Music (UK), Trinity College of Music London, Volterra Project (Italy), Hermoupolis Guitar Festival (Greece), Mannes School of Music and Julliard in New York.

She is a researcher and published author with several published articles in journals such as Soundboard (USA) and Classical Guitar Magazine (former UK, now USA). She has authored and composed three music books, and has been recorded on 4 continents. Her most well known and internationally acclaimed being Guitar Music From Africa, published by Art Music and Ashley Mark publishing. She undertook a prolific performing career, concertizing in the United Kingdom, United States of America, Singapore, Malaysia, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Holland, Belgium, Austria, Germany, Denmark, Scotland, Greece and South Africa. Her guitar compositions are published by Art Music, while the Southern African Music Rights Organisation has commissioned and sponsored her compositional and teaching work. She was awarded several prestigious awards for her work in research and music education, including a life-time achievement Astris award. She is currently working on her second full feature screenplay, as well as composing music for a nature documentary.