Dr. Kristen Bromley is a gifted and sought-after musician, who works as a performer, composer, arranger, recording artist, author, educator, and scholar.
As a recording artist, Kristen has released seven albums to date that feature her as a jazz and/or solo guitarist. These albums include:
- Simply Miraculous (KRBM19001), jazz trio
- Amazing Grace (KRBM20001), solo guitar on a collection of hymns
- Bluish Tide (KRBM21001), jazz quintet
- Finding Fields (KRBM21002), Groove Axis jazz quartet
- Silent Night (KRBM22001), solo guitar on a collection of Christmas songs
- Muagsician (KRBM23001), 2-discs, solo jazz guitar
- Wes 101 (KRBM25001), jazz quartet
Kristen has eclectic tastes, and though she has mainly recorded in the jazz style or as a solo guitarist she has also performed and taught in many styles and has plans to write and record in additional styles as well. As a jazz musician, Kristen and her playing have been described by critics as entertaining, inspiring, soulful, melodic, precise, virtuosic, cohesive, spiritual, joyful, artistic, and a true tour de force. Her jazz albums have also been well represented by radio stations and the charts. For instance, her Muagiscian album was placed at #33 on Roots Music Report’s list of top jazz albums in 2024 and her Bluish Tide album was placed at #22 on that same list for 2022, with both of those albums charting for numerous weeks on Root’s Music Report and other charts, and reaching as high as #5 during the weeks where they were charting.
In addition to her own albums, Kristen has additionally been featured on other recordings and has performed at various locations across parts of North America and Europe, including some of the most highly prestigious jazz festivals in the world, such as the Edinburgh International Jazz Festival (Scotland), the Birmingham International Jazz and Blues Festival (England), the Marlborough International Jazz Festival (England), the Loulé Jazz Festival (Portugal), the San Sebastian International Jazz Festival (Spain), the Ezcaray Jazz Festival (Spain), and the Umbria Jazz Festival (Italy). Dr. Bromley has also performed and presented clinics at multiple Jazz Education Network and International Association for Jazz Education conferences. In 2006 and 2007, she was named the outstanding guitar soloist at the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival.
Dr. Bromley has over 25 years of music teaching experience, including 12 years working as a guitar and jazz studies professor at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, where she taught various guitar classes and individual lessons to students at all levels, jazz courses and lessons on composition and improvisation, and directed and coached small and large jazz ensembles, and four years as a guitar and jazz studies professor at Utah Valley University in Orem, Utah where she similarly taught guitar lessons and classes and directed ensembles, in addition to her many years as a private music instructor and guest clinician.
Kristen is the author of several guitar method books and runs a music instruction channel on YouTube called Dr. Kristen R. Bromley’s Online Music Academy, which includes over 1,100 videos aimed at helping others with their guitar playing. On the channel, there are lesson series that cover jazz guitar techniques, how to solo in the pop, rock, and blues styles, flatpicking, strumming and finger plucking chords, note reading, tablature reading, and fretboard theory and technique, in addition to the basic courses designed for the beginner.
As a scholar, Dr. Bromley has focused much of her research on discovering ways to create more interactive and person-centered educational environments wherein individuals experience whole-person learning outcomes as they grow through cognitive, emotional, and experiential means, develop greater self-discipline, and become more fully-functioning persons. (For more information see Person-Centered Learning in a Collegiate Jazz Combo by Kristen R. Bromley)
Kristen has a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Music Education from Boston University, a Master of Music degree in Jazz Studies from Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music, and a Bachelor of Music degree in Jazz Studies, with an additional BA major in Family History and Genealogy, from Brigham Young University.
In January 2016, Dr. Bromley suffered a severe break to her left-arm humerus bone, which likewise involved a crushed radial nerve in that arm. Despite a very grim prognosis, which suggested that in a best-case-scenario she would regain a very small percentage of the function of her left-arm and hand, Kristen works as a musician and guitarist today. At the time of the injury, she was given a special priesthood blessing wherein God promised her that in time, because of her faith, she would experience a complete recovery. Truly, this miraculous promise has become a reality. After several months of patience and waiting, she slowly began regaining the ability to move her wrist and fingers, and weeks later was able to start gradually developing the ability to play the guitar again. In November of 2018, Dr. Bromley recorded a debut jazz album called Simply Miraculous, which celebrated her miraculous return to professional guitar playing.
Kristen loves life, is deeply religious, and truly believes in the awesome power music has to uplift, edify, and inspire the soul. She has devoted her career to enriching, uplifting, edifying, and inspiring lives through the education, performance, scholarship, composition, recording, and publishing of music.
