Jerome Kitzke was born in Milwaukee in 1955 and has lived in New York City since 1984. His music arises from the North American landscape and celebrates vitality in its purest forms, thriving on the spirit of driving jazz, Plains Indian song, and Beat Generation poetry, where freedom and ritual converge. It is direct, dramatic, and visceral, always with an ear to the sacred ground. Often political and always topical, his music aims at revealing the heart of what it means to be an American early in the 21st century, especially as it relates to how we live on this land and the way we came to live on it.
Kitzke received his BFA from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, and moved to New York City in 1984. In 1992 Kitzke formed his performing group Mad Coyote. His music has also been performed by the Milwaukee Symphony, the New Juilliard Ensemble, Essential Music, Present Music, Earplay, Zeitgeist, Guy Klucevsek, Margaret Leng Tan, ETHEL and Kathleen Supové. Kitzke has received grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, American Music Center, Meet the Composer, ASCAP, and BMI.