composer. performer. educator.

Musical polymath Kyle Saulnier (aka thèriot.) fuses the American musical vocabulary with modern orchestral techniques and industrial rock muscle. WNYC has called his music "lush and inventive," and Downbeat Magazine referred to it as “a Great American Songbook of another order." His compositions, arrangements, and orchestrations have been performed nationally and internationally by the Awakening Orchestra, the Metropole Orkest (orchestrator), Jon Irabagon, the Westerlies, WeatherVest, Osso String Quartet, the Vermont Symphony Orchestra, Salina Symphony, Saturn People’s Sound Collective, TURNmusic, and the Champlain Philharmonic Orchestra. Kyle has also scored for National Geographic Television and orchestrated for independent film.

Kyle leads and conducts the Awakening Orchestra, and performs as thèriot. on acoustic and electric basses and baritone saxophone, specializing in creative, composer-driven projects that blur the lines of traditional genre. In addition to his collaborative projects with Edna and soft rocks., Kyle has premiered new works by Eve Beglarian and Erik Nielsen, and appeared with artists including Moppa Elliott’s Acceleration Due to Gravity, Brian Boyes’ Saturn People’s Sound Collective, Myra Flynn, Kat Wright, Francesca Blanchard, Andy Gagnon’s LOVECRAFT, TURNmusic, and Cricket Blue. He is a sought-after producer, clinician, and guest conductor across New England.

Kyle is Director of Jazz Activities at Middlebury College and has also taught in the music departments of the University of Vermont, Quinnipiac University, and as a teaching fellow at New England Conservatory. He is the founding director of the Vermont Youth Orchestra’s Jazz program, and is founding president of the Vermont Jazz Foundation.

complete discography
list of works
music for sale

SELECTED production credits

the Awakening Orchestra - volume ii: to call her to a higher plain. (2020, Biophilia), interlude: Atticus Live! - the music of Jesse Lewis. (2016, Biophilia), volume i: this is not the answer. (2014, innova)
Felipe Salles Interconnections Ensemble - Home Is Here (2023, Tapestry), The New Immigrant Experience (2020, Tapestry), The Lullaby Project (2018, Tapestry)
Pablo Masis - Thought and Memory (2023, Brooklyn Jazz Underground)
the Vermont Quarantine Collective - here behind the glass. (2020)
Patrick Cornelius - While We're Still Young (2016, Whirlwind)

teaching APPOINTMENTS

Director of Jazz Activities at Middlebury College - Middlebury, VT
Music Faculty at the University of Vermont - Burlington, VT

(Previously)
Quinnipiac University - Hamden, CT
Northern Vermont University - Johnson, VT
New England Conservatory - Boston, MA
Bergen Community College - Paramus, NJ

clinics & masterclasses:

Kyle is active and available for clinics and masterclasses, specializing in contemporary composition and ensemble direction. To inquire about a guest lecture, contact him here.