Kendra Wheeler
"Using the RULON saxophone rest immediately felt natural. My right hand feels free to move and free of tension. Great design! Key Leaves sax props are a must have product for keeping my horn in great shape! I highly recommend them for all saxophonists." - Dr. Kendra Wheeler (Saxophonist, Educator, Central Washington University)
Kendra Wheeler is a saxophonist whose work centers on the expansion of contemporary repertoire through performance, commissioning, and collaborative work with composers. Her artistic practice spans standard classical literature, contemporary acoustic and electroacoustic work, and spatial audio, with a sustained focus on building new repertoire that reflects a wide range of musical voices and approaches.
Since 2020, she has given over 50 invited performances and lectures across 20 U.S. states and nine countries, with appearances at the Sonorities Festival (Belfast, 2026), a residency in Lisbon, Portugal, and concerto performances including Tolga Zafer Özdemir’s Karpathia with the LSU Wind Ensemble and Escapades by John Williams with the Yakima Symphony Orchestra and the Virginia Tech Wind Ensemble. She has commissioned over 25 new works and leads Beyond the Instrument, a commissioning and recording initiative supported by LSU Provost’s Big Idea and CMDA Matching Grants, which builds a sustained body of contemporary saxophone repertoire.
Her work has been recognized through national and international awards and honors, including the Vandoren Emerging Artist International Competition Prize, the DownBeat Magazine Grand Prize, the Emerging Scholar Award from the International Conference on the Arts in Society (2022), recognition in the Concert Artists Guild Victor Elmaleh Competition (2023), and a Global Music Awards Silver Medal (2026) for her performance of Karpathia with the LSU Wind Ensemble. Her scholarship, including the peer-reviewed article “Disentangled: Why Understanding Identity Is Essential to Establishing Inclusive Musical Communities” (2023), extends this work into the study of how classical music communities are structured and sustained.
Wheeler’s teaching reflects the same integration of performance, inquiry, and communication. Her students have earned national and regional recognition, including prizes at the MTNA National Young Artist Competition, the LSU Concerto Competition, and appearances at North American Saxophone Alliance conferences. At Louisiana State University, she teaches a Communication-Intensive Saxophone Pedagogy course that integrates writing, speaking, and analytical work into performance training. Her students regularly present degree recitals and pursue graduate and professional opportunities, reflecting a pedagogy grounded in technical precision, interpretive depth, and individual artistic development. She is an active guest artist and clinician, with invited masterclasses and teaching residencies at UCLA, the University of Minnesota, Escola Superior de Música de Lisboa, and the Saarburg International Music Festival, and has served on the faculty of the Twin Cities Saxophone Camp. She was selected as a 2026 NASA Featured Masterclass Artist.
Wheeler’s service extends her artistic work into field-wide leadership. She is the founder of the Women of Color in Saxophone Network, a national professional development and advocacy organization. She has served as co-chair of the North American Saxophone Alliance’s DEIBA Committee, leading initiatives focused on equity and access within the field. She also curates the Saxophone Repertoire by Black Composers Anthology, an ongoing resource documenting works by more than 20 composers. As an LSU Pinkie Gordon Lane Graduate School Faculty Fellow (2025–2026), she has led professional development programming on career development, public speaking, and mental health.
An active chamber musician, Wheeler performs with the Medusa Saxophone Quartet and in duo and collaborative projects focused on commissioning, experimentation, and ongoing artistic partnerships.
Wheeler holds the DMA in Saxophone Performance from Michigan State University, where she studied with Joe Lulloff, and BM and MM degrees from the University of Minnesota, where she studied with Eugene Rousseau, one of the defining figures of the twentieth-century saxophone tradition. She is Assistant Professor of Saxophone at Louisiana State University.