Works performed by Earplay:

centripetals/centrifugals

The work of oboist and composer/performer Kyle Bruckmann extends from a Western classical foundation into gray areas encompassing free jazz, electronic music and post-punk rock. A busy and varied performance schedule and appearances on more than sixty recordings in multiple genres have led to his recognition as "an excellent composer, striking the right balance between form and freedom" (Signal to Noise), "a modern day renaissance musician" (Dusted), and "a seasoned improviser with impressive extended technique and peculiar artistic flair" (All Music Guide).

Since moving to the San Francisco Bay Area in 2003, he has worked with the San Francisco Symphony and most of the area's regional orchestras while remaining active within an international community of improvisers and sound artists. He is a member of new music collective sfSound, San Francisco Contemporary Music Players, Eco Ensemble, Splinter Reeds, and Quinteto Latino. He teaches at UC Santa Cruz and served as one of the volunteer curators at San Francisco's Center for New Music from 2014 to 2016.

From 1996 until his westward relocation, he was a fixture in Chicago’s experimental music underground; long-term affiliations dating from that era include the electro-acoustic duo EKG, the artpunk monstrosity Lozenge, and the Creative Music quintet Wrack — a recipient of Chamber music America's 2012 New Jazz Works program. More recent Bay Area improvising working groups have included Degradient, Shudder, Addleds, and mchtnchts.

His compositions have been presented in settings including Constellation's Frequency Series (Chicago), JazzPOP at the Hammer Museum (L.A.), Creative Music Guild (Portland), Stanford University's CCRMA, Unruly Music Series (Milwaukee), the Outsound New Music Summit (SF), Music of the Americas Concert Series (University of New Mexico), Mondavi Center (UC Davis), L@TE at BAM/PFA (Berkeley), SASSAS (L.A.), Sai Wan Ho Civic Centre (Hong Kong), San Francisco Tape Music Festival, Kunstencentrum Belgie (Hasselt, Belgium) and Ulrichsberg Kaleidophon (Austria).

Bruckmann was born in 1971 in Danbury, CT, hometown of Charles Ives. He earned undergraduate degrees in music and psychology at Rice University in Houston, studying oboe with Robert Atherholt, serving as music director of campus radio station KTRU, and achieving academic distinction as a member of Phi Beta Kappa. He completed his Masters degree in 1996 at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he studied oboe performance with Harry Sargous and contemporary improvisation with Ed Sarath.

His website is kylebruckmann.com.