Kengchakaj Kengkarnka

Kengchakaj raised in a music-loving family. Although, he did not pursue the music career path until his early 20s when the time he was at a design school, one of his professors recommend him to listen to Bill Evans. In consequence, inspired, Kengchakaj decided to pursue the music career.

Kengchakaj holds a Master’s degree from Manhattan School of Music, class of 2017, with funding from Fulbright scholarship. He studied privately with Ted Rosenthal and Phil Markowitz as well as renowned faculty at MSM, such as Garry Dial, Rogerio Boccato, Scott Wendholt, Jeremy Manasia, Gretchen Parlato, Theo Bleckman, Kate McGarry, Todd Reynold and many more. Kengchakaj is a graduate of Rangsit University’s Conservatory of Music where he studied under Dr. Denny Euprasert.

Kengchakaj has won numerous awards including Best Soloist from Thailand International Jazz Conference Solo Competition(2013), and First Prize awards both in the Ensemble(2013) and Individual Performance(2011) categories from Thailand Jazz Competition.

Since he moved to NYC in 2015, Kengchakaj has been performing at venues such as 55Bar, Bar Next Door, Zinc Bar and many more. Besides, Kengchakaj is a performance artist in resident during 2015-2017 at International House NYC, organizing house concert as well as Jam Session. Kengchakaj has a privilege to performs many Jazz Festival including Huahin Jazz Festival, Samui Jazz Festival, Thailand Jazz International Conference, Cotai Jazz and Blues Festival(Macau, China) as well as a key performer to celebrating International Jazz Day in Bangkok Thailand. He also performs regularly at renowned venues for Jazz in Bangkok, Thailand such as Brown Sugar, Saxophone Pub, Sweets Records, to name a few.

As an educator, he teaches privately both in NYC and Bangkok. Moreover, he's a guest lecturer at Rangsit University as well.

Recently, he partnered with Julphan Tilapornputt and founded "Addicted East Tones" in 2017, a weekly series concerts held in Brooklyn area which focuses on exposing emerging artist like himself and his peers to the broader audiences.

Awards

- Winner, Best Soloist from Thailand International Jazz Conference Solo Competition(2013) - First Prize awards, Ensemble Performance categories from Thailand Jazz Competition(2013) - First Prize awards, Individual Performance categories from Thailand Jazz Competition(2011)

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