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Artist Profile
 Brian Kelly is an American composer, pianist, and recording artist creating instrumental music in a variety of genres, including Contemporary Instrumental, Contemporary Jazz, Jazz Fusion, Smooth Jazz, Neo-Classical, and New Age.
In 2005 he released his debut album of piano instrumentals, Pools of Light, on his own Skylight Music label. The album charted #1 for two months on modern  instrumental radio in North America and was voted Top 10 Best New Age Albums of 2004 by Kathy Parsons (MainlyPiano.com). Brian was nominated for the NAR (New Age Reporter) Lifestyle Music Artist of the Year award. In 2006 he published Pools of Light: the Solo Piano Songbook, a collection of transcriptions and solo piano arrangements of 11 tracks from his ''Pools of Light'' CD.
Brian’s second CD of piano-based instrumental music, Afterplay (released in 2008), heads into upbeat contemporary jazz territory with strong melodies, fluid  chops, and richly detailed arrangements. The album includes the world-renowned talents of Eric Crystal on sax (Boz Scaggs, Omar Sosa), David Rokeach on drums (Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles), Viviana Guzman on flute, James Robinson on guitar, and other fine musicians. Nominated for "Best Instrumental Jazz Album 2009" (Just Plain Folks Music Award), ranked #3 on the NAR Top 100 Radio Chart for three months in a row (November 2008 thru January 2009) and chosen as a "Best of 2008" pick by Audiosyncracy.
Born in New York City, Brian grew up in Palo Alto, California. He began piano at age 8, creating pieces for his mother, who played classical piano at home and violin for a community opera company. At age 10 he recalls listening endlessly to side two of the Beatles ‘Abbey Road’ and a recording of Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto. His experience as a stage actor and performer in dozens of plays and musical theatre productions at TheatreWorks and the Palo Alto Children's Theatre, as well as his four years of singing madrigals in an a cappella group, continue to inform his creative work. He studied music composition at Hampshire College and studied jazz piano with Art Lande.
Brian Kelly is winner of the Keyboard Magazine Soundpage Award for his original composition “Todd Pond” (1990).  His music receives national and international airplay from radio stations and satellite music networks around the world. Brian is a graduate of Hampshire College, and a voting member of the Recording Academy. He resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.
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"I enjoyed your music...
I'm still enjoying it."
- Tom Wolfe, author
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"Your CD is fantastic and is a favorite of mine. I particularly love the arrangements; they're compelling and always interesting to listen to. I spin just about every track on the CD and they're on most of the playlists on my iPod!"
- Jamey Osborne, Host of "Audiosyncracy", KTEP FM El Paso, TX
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"talent worth watching"
- Keyboard Magazine
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"Kelly's music has that dream-like quality that comes out of the mist and pulls you towards the light."
- New Age Reporter
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"Pools of Light... is an enchanting, heart opening, timeless masterpiece. [Brian] interweaves melodic lines and rhythms, and layers sounds to achieve a musical sound that is instantly mind expanding. He's also merged New Age with Jazz which is difficult to do, similar to rare artists such as Pat Metheny. You can't go wrong with this album. "
- Steven Cravis, recording artist
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