Music Portfolio

McKennen Campbell has 20 years of performance experience, education, and training. He was classically trained in vocal performance, piano, and theatre. This training began through Chicago Public Schools at age 5. He attended a school for fine arts from Kindergarten through 8th Grade, which granted him and his peers many performance opportunities and lessons. He continued his arts education in High School music, choral, and theatre programs. Following high school, he attended Emerson College, where he received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre and Performance.

Through these arts education programs, he frequently sang in choirs, bands, and ensembles where he was granted opportunities to perform at such venues as: Orchestra Hall at Symphony Center, The Harris Theater for Music and Dance, The Art Institute of Chicago, Navy Pier, the Auditorium Theater, Civic Opera House, the Taste of Chicago, Pianoforte, and the Huntington Bank Pavilion.

His first performance with a choir was at the North Shore Center for the Performing Arts when he was 7 years old. Starting in 8th Grade through High School, McKennen sang for classical vocal solo competitions where he received a Division I rating. One competition placed him into the ILMEA All-State chorus from the audition alone in 2018. From 2014 to 2016, he was in various rock and contemporary bands as a keyboard player and lead singer. In these bands, he performed both covers of songs, and songs he composed for the groups to perform.

In theater, he performed and trained with theatre companies such as Bailiwick Chicago, Lucky Plush, and the Second City.

At age 11, McKennen wrote and recorded the first idea for the song, Sunlight. At age 13, he began composing his own music with complete concepts. His desire to create and perform his own musical projects was established. The early music he composed became the songs on his 2024 release, Illuminate The Night. These songs went through many iterations throughout the decade of the album’s development. Each iteration was reflective of his creative skill, and where he was at emotionally.

Beyond performing, Campbell used his musical knowledge toward music directing and conducting a cappella groups, jazz musicians, musicals, and choirs.

MUSIC AND PERFORMANCE

EDUCATION

With McKennen’s comprehensive music education, he learned theory and techniques in a range of genres.

This included classical voice (bel canto), classical piano, jazz, rock, gospel, musical-theatre, and folk music from different cultures in different languages.

He has a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Theatre and Performance from Emerson College in Boston, MA. In 2023, he was the recipient of the college’s theater area award for his dedication to his creative discipline, storytelling, and collaboration with other artists. In that same year, he was inducted into the Purple Key Leadership Society for his dedication to academics and civic engagement throughout his 4 years of study.

After graduating, McKennen spent time managing live events for performance venues. The events he has managed ranges from an audience of 50 to an audience of 80,000 people. He finds that spaces for artistic and cultural programming is a necessity.

He believes art, and spaces for art, has an intrinsic power to connect people from different walks of life, who otherwise wouldn’t connect. He finds that art can help people understand the beautiful depth and diversity in our humanity. Through many of the events he has managed being free to the public, he finds it important that art stays accessible and resonant.

He applies his musical knowledge and experience to preparing and sharing about performances, and hopes that audiences feel more connected to what is performed with an informed process, connecting with staff who show care in the artistic and cultural knowledge, and access to more ways to engage with the performance. He also has a personal connection to the spaces he managed, as these are spaces where he performed at a young age, helping inspire his affinity for performance. He hopes that his leadership can ignite that same process of inspiration for the next person.

In late 2025 and early 2026, he was employed to teach high school students in a musical theatre program.

SOLO MUSIC CAREER

In 2024, McKennen released his debut studio album, Illuminate The Night, an album that underwent a creative process that lasted a decade.

Inspired by his own coming-of-age story, he speaks to his mental health journey, how his environment shaped his emotions, and the feelings of hope when growing up in Chicago in the 21st century.

This is illustrated through the motif of light. The album is available on all streaming platforms. McKennen takes an approach of “digital composing." He builds each song from scratch by writing music note by note for every instrumental line in a DAW. In addition, he arranges all of his vocals.

He is currently preparing the release of his second studio album, Comply. This album takes the form of a double-album, speaking to socio-political issues in the first quarter of the 21st century and its affect on finding creative freedom as an artist. The album parallels current challenges in creating art to current challenges of human compassion. The narrative focuses on a need to preserve humanity, art, communal and personal agency. This story explores themes of having creative control and freedom, defying expectations, finding individual voice, and not complying to stifling systems. McKennen began composing songs for Comply in 2018. McKennen plans to begin releasing music from the double-album in 2027.