About

Percussionist, Educator, Advocate

Dr. McKenna Blenk is an active educator currently based in Denver, Colorado. She works as a percussion instructor at Denver Percussion and a percussion specialist for Legend High School. She has previously held positions at Cornell College and Iowa Wesleyan University, and has worked with various steel pan groups, percussion ensembles, and marching percussion in Colorado, Texas, North Carolina, Missouri, and Iowa.

McKenna has performed extensively across the United States, Thailand and Italy as a soloist, chamber, and ensemble musician. She has performed with percussionists and groups such as Steven Schick, Victor Provost, Michael Compitello, Ksenija Komljenović, and Sõ Percussion. She has performed in the Cortona Marimba Sessions and Arcata Gathering Festival as an inaugural member, as well as the Cortona Sessions for New Music and Princess Galyani Vadhana International Music Festival. McKenna is an advocate for new music and the commissioning and programming of underrepresented composers. Her interests include the collaborative process of commissioning and performance with an emphasis on diversity and inclusion in her music. She has worked with composers such as Caroline Shaw, Yaz Lancaster, Tanner Porter, Brendan Sweeney, Julia Petrongolo, Lucy Shirley, Charlotte Otto, and Adam Grim to create an album of new music titled “Invitation to Be.”

McKenna holds a DMA in Percussion Performance and Pedagogy with a secondary emphasis in ethnomusicology from the University of Iowa, a Masters in Percussion Performance from Truman State, and a Bachelor of Music Education with a Percussion Performance Certificate from Appalachian State. Previous teachers include Dr. Dan Moore, Dr. Rob Falvo, Dr. Diana Loomer, Dr. Michael Bump, Professor Byron Hedgepeth, and Professor Rick Dilling.

McKenna is a Vic Firth and Zildjian Educational Artist, a member of the Network for Diversity in Concert Percussion, and serves on the PAS Diversity Alliance Committee.