Faculty Spotlight: Kevin Bock
Meet Kevin Bock! He is an instructor of Tuba and Euphonium, as well as assistant director of the pep band at Grand Canyon University. As an educator, Mr. Bock has taught masterclasses in New Jersey, Boston, New Hampshire, Arizona, California and the Caribbean.
Mr. Bock represented GCU at the annual Army Band Tuba-Euphonium Workshop, performing in the college professor’s recital in 2016. He has also performed with the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Colorado Music Festival, Arizona Opera, Boston Pops, New World, Phoenix, Detroit and Boston Symphony Orchestras. He has been fortunate enough to work with some of the finest conductors in the world, including Frederick Fennell, John Rutter, Leonard Slatkin, Lorin Maazel and Simon Rattle, among others.
As a chamber musician, Mr. Bock has performed at the International Trumpet Guild’s Conference in Pittsburgh, PA as well as the International Horn Society’s Conference in Natal, Brazil. He is a graduate of the Interlochen Arts Academy and later studied at Arizona State University and Boston’s New England Conservatory.
Mr. Bock is an avid music educator outside the campus at Grand Canyon University too. He is an active clinician in the greater Phoenix area and has been fortunate to take part in many projects with the Phoenix Symphony. This includes the Mind Over Music program, which sends out musicians to Title I schools to use music as a tie-in to a previously covered topic to help reinforce and diversify the learning process. This is Mr. Bock’s second year working with the fifth grade classes at Monte Vista Elementary School and has broached a wide range of topics from fractions, endangered species and indigenous tribes to functions and identifying tone and themes in literature.
Another project that Mr. Bock has worked on closely with the Phoenix Symphony is their Music and Memory program. This program has sent musicians out to three different live-in memory care centers that specialize in elderly patients with dementia. In conjunction with ASU, the Symphony and its musicians have done planned music interventions at these memory care facilities to help research the effects of music on patients with different types of dementia as well as tracking the biomarkers of the musicians themselves as well.
When asked what his favorite part about teaching was, he replied, “What I enjoy the most about teaching is helping my students have that eureka moment”. He likes using his own personal struggles and experience to help students navigate things faster and is a source of pride that he enjoys very much. He has a “keep it simple” approach. Mr. Bock will always begin with the most basic fundamentals and then slowly add to perfection over time. He also enjoys spending time playing chamber music in a manner of settings with his wife, Tessa. They spend the rest of their free time spoiling their Boston Terrier, Leia.
If you want to learn more about Grand Canyon University’s arts program within the College of Fine Arts and Production, check out our website or click the Request More Information button on this page.