A composer and teacher of composition and electronic music, Kevin Ernste's music has been performed nationally and internationally with recent and ongoing concerts in Holland, Taiwan, Singapore, mainland China, Hong Kong, England, Cuba, and throughout the United States. Before joining the faculty at Cornell, he did graduate work in composition at the Eastman School of Music where he studied with Augusta Read Thomas, Joseph Schwantner, Robert Morris, and Allan Schindler. Recently he was acting director and lecturer at the Eastman Computer Music Center and co-director of the ImageMovementSound festival in Rochester, New York.

His recent music includes a work for guitarist Kenneth Meyer called Roses Don't Need Perfume, a piece for marimbist Nathaniel Bartlett called Katafala (5-octave marimba and percussion ensemble), a commission piece called Persephone in Hell celebrating the poetry of Pulitzer prize winner and former Poet Laureate Rita Dove, a work titled To Be Neither Proud Nor Ashamed for saxophonist Randall Hall, Birches for violist John Graham performed on Mr. Graham's 2004 China tour (Beijing, Wuhan, Xiamen, Hong Kong) as well as at the Aspen Summer Music Festival and at Cornell's 2004 "State of The Art," and Long Path (text by Muren Hsi) for solo piano and tape narration for Fang-Tzu Liu performed recently in the National Concert Hall in Taipei, Taiwan. A CD including his music (Randal Hall, saxophone, To Be Neither Proud Nor Ashamed) is set for release fall 2006 on Innova Records (Innova 660).

At Cornell he is an assistant professor of composition and Director of the Cornell Electroacoustic Music Center. He teaches both graduate and undergraduate courses in music composition and electronic music.