Kevin Kern (born Kevin Lark Gibbs on December 22, 1958) is an American pianist, composer and recording artist of new-age music. He was born in Detroit, Michigan. He is now generally recognized as a representative of the new-age style. Born legally blind, Kern is aided in studio by SONAR’s accessibility and Dancing Dots’ assistive music technologies for the vision impaired.

A native of Detroit, Kevin Kern began playing the piano at the tender age of eighteen months. Though legally blind since birth, his exceptional talent soon became clear. The influences of lifelong friend and mentor, jazz great George Shearing, and Detroit Symphony Pianist Mischa Kottler helped Kern to develop an early love of improvisation and an appreciation for the beautiful sound a piano could produce. He continued his education at the prestigious New England Conservatory of Music in Boston where he studied with Jaki Byard and Fred Hersch.

One of the hallmarks of Kevin’s recordings is the inclusion of piano solo pieces he refers to as “sound paintings”. Spontaneously improvised in a darkened recording studio, Kern uses the piano to “paint” musical pictures of scenes which are often suggested to him in the moment.