She made her Chicago debut at the Chicago Cultural Center as the First Prize winner of the 2018 Musician’s Club of Women Competition. As soprano chair of the Khroma Saxophone Quartet, Ms. Kunkle was awarded the Silver Medal at the 2019 Fischoff Chamber Music Competition. She frequently collaborates with contemporary composers and continues to perform at nationwide events while committing to education and outreach.

Ms. Kunkle has performed at prestigious venues across the United States including the Lincoln Center and the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Internationally, she has performed at the National Center for the Performing Arts in Beijing with the Eastman Saxophone Project, as well as the Esplanade Theater in Singapore, where she performed and recorded an album of Shostakovich’s music with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra under Andrew Litton.

Currently Ms. Kunkle is the Instructor of Saxophone at Syracuse University Setnor School of Music, Nazareth College, and an Adjunct Professor of Saxophone at Roberts Wesleyan University. For her work at the Eastman Community Music School, she received the Jack L. Frank award for excellence in teaching.

Ms. Kunkle earned her Doctor of Musical Arts in Saxophone Performance and Literature with a minor in Music Theory at the Eastman School of Music, where she was a member of the Eastman Wind Ensemble, and former Assistant Director and chief arranger of the Eastman Saxophone Project. She also received her Bachelor of Music with High Distinction in Saxophone Performance and Music Education from Eastman, and a Master of Music from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Ms. Kunkle was inaugurated into the Beta Pi Eastman Chapter of Pi Kappa Lambda for her academic excellence and earned a certificate from the Eastman Arts Leadership Program. Her primary teachers include Chien-Kwan Lin and Debra Richtmeyer.

Education

• D.M.A., Eastman School of Music
• M.M., University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
• B.M., Eastman School of Music