Brian Kay is a modern-day troubadour. He is founder and director of THEATRO, an ensemble of musicians, actors, and other talents dedicated to combining historical music and historical theater practices. He is currently overseeing their international period instrument recording of the original music from the plays of William Shakespeare. He is an Artistic Leadership Fellow of Apollo's Fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra, and he won a GRAMMY® Award for his work on their Songs of Orpheus recording. He was a featured soloist on the soundtrack of Netflix's The Witcher series, playing lutes, ouds, guitars, and percussion. He has performed throughout the world at venues such as the National Concert Hall of Dublin, Belfast Castle (Ireland), Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, the Indianapolis Early Music Festival, and the Folger Theater. His live radio appearances include NPR, Baltimore's WYPR, Baltimore's 98ROCK, Boston's WGBH, and Cleveland's WCLV. He has recorded with record labels Avie and Sono Luminus and has appeared on albums which include original, early music, folk, traditional Sephardic, chamber and orchestral. He is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, arranger, actor, and a traditional and historical music specialist.

Brian studied historical plucked instruments at Peabody Conservatory of the John’s Hopkins University under Mark Cudek and Richard Stone. He is a core member of Twa Corbies and Apollo's Fire, and regularly performs with Early Music Access Project, Hesperus, The Folger Consort, Trio Sefardi and is a founding member of the early music meets early theater group THEATRO.

As a professor, Brian teaches at Cleveland Institute of Music and Case Western Reserve University. He has lectured on music and history at Yale University, The Peabody Conservatory, Johns Hopkins University, The Folger Theater, The Kennedy Center, and Baldwin-Wallace College. He was Artist in Residence at the Cushman School in Miami and has done outreach for elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges, and prisons across the country.