Kinkel was born in
Buffalo, New York. Receiving his early musical training singing in a choir in his hometown of Williamsville, New York, he continued his education singing in choirs and playing in Williamsville school bands until he attended
Hamilton College where he attained his degree in music, studying composition, piano and organ. His first professional music job came at the
Record Plant Studios in New York City, where he assisted on productions for bands such as
The Who,
Badlands and uncredited work with
Aerosmith. He teamed up with producer
Paul O'Neill and vocalist-pianist
Jon Oliva on
Hall of the Mountain King, a 1987 album from Savatage. Kinkel joined Savatage for the follow-up releases
Gutter Ballet (1989) and
Streets: A Rock Opera (1991), to return again with both keyboard and engineering work on
Dead Winter Dead (1995),
The Wake of Magellan (1998) and
Poets and Madmen (2001). He provided all the keyboard orchestral arrangements while founder Jon Oliva played the standard keyboard parts, but he never performed live with the band. He was also an engineer on
Handful of Rain, which featured
Testament guitarist
Alex Skolnick, and the live album
Ghost in the Ruins – A Tribute to Criss Oliva. In discussing the unexpected development of the rock opera format, Trans-Siberian Orchestra guitarist
Al Pitrelli said in a 2007 interview: “Rock opera is not that popular right now. But about a dozen years or so ago, Paul O'Neill, Bob Kinkel, Jon Oliva and myself just sat down and said, 'We want to make a record that's representative of all four of our musical backgrounds.' It's not like we were trying to write a record that was current, or get on the charts, or keep up with kids 20, 30 years younger than us.” In 2011, Kinkel began writing, recording, and performing with New York-based vocalist
Dina Fanai, who had previously worked as a vocal coach with Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Kinkel was inducted into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame in October 2007. The next year, Kinkel commented to Rocknotes Webzine: "It’s just a great honor, to have someone nominate you and then go through the whole thing. That was just a huge honor and it made me feel really good. I was very proud to accept it." ==Discography==