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 Artist Profile
Brian Kelly - Composer & Pianist
Lyrical, elegant, and emotionally evocative, the music of Northern California-based composer/pianist, Brian Kelly, draws inspiration from Classical, World, and Jazz traditions. His latest release, Afterplay (his second CD of piano based instrumental music), 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.
His debut album, Pools of Light, released in 2005 on his own Skylight MusicTM label has received wide critical acclaim. The album charted at #1 for two months on the instrumental music radio chart in North America, was nominated for "Best New Artist 2005" (NAR Lifestyle Music Awards), and voted Top 10 Best New Age Albums of 2004 by Kathy Parsons of Solo Piano Publications.
In 2006 Brian published Pools of Light: The Solo Piano Songbook, a collection of 12 solo piano arrangements (sheet music) from the album. The songbook is available as a digital download in pdf format.
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 Northern California near San Francisco.
Brian began playing piano at age 8, creating pieces for his mother, who played classical piano at home and also played 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. Another strong influence on his musical palette is his experience in musical theatre. In his teenage years he performed as an actor and singer in over 20 productions at The Palo Alto Children’s Theatre and TheatreWorks. He also sang a cappella Renaissance music for 4 years, and was a member of the California State Honors Choir.
In college, in the 1980’s, he studied composition and jazz improvisation and accompanied modern dance classes. His jazz quartet, ‘The Arts and Leisure Section’ performed throughout New England, and in the ‘90’s his keyboards fueled the psychedelic, world-music improvisational excursions of ‘What If?.’ He won Keyboard Magazine's "5th Annual Reader's Soundpage Contest" for his piece, "Todd Pond."
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