Ken McGloin-The Jon Bates Band

Ken McGloin

Ken McGloin - Lead Guitar
Ken McGloin has been a working musician since the age of 14. Ken notes that when he became head of the Music Department at The Poughkeepsie Day School a few years ago, “it was the first regular job I ever had. I’ve always made my living playing music.” A big part of his duties at PDS is teaching students how to write and perform original songs, as well as overseeing the writing and performance of their annual school musical.

Ken is also the musical director of an internationally acclaimed enterprise called “Face The Music”, which presents innovative team building programs, using music to inspire and enhance the performance of management and sales teams, administrators, researchers, and ranking professionals at Fortune 500 companies (www.facethemusicblues.com).

He remembers that some of the first songs he learned as a kid, when his mother got him a guitar at the age of 12, were off old blues recordings by Mississippi Fred McDowell and Freddie King records. He became heavily steeped in the Blues and Rock ‘n Roll, but his primary focus shifted toward jazz during high school, and even more so once he entered the prestigious University of Miami music program. His music education also included master classes with jazz greats Dave Holland, Larry Coryell and John Abercrombie, and he studied classical guitar for five years. Ken is an accomplished and virtuosic player, able to play many styles with an authentic feel and appreciation of what makes each valid in its own way. He has led bands ranging from swing to hip-hop, folk to funk, and his “hard-core alternative” band, Lunchmeat, played the main stage at the 1994 25th Anniversary Woodstock Festival. He also writes music for TV and film. His music has been featured on two of MTV’s most popular shows, “The Real World” and “Road Rules”, as well as "The Oprah Winfrey Show", and the ESPN network.