Instruments Piano, Keyboards Labels Skylight Music Name Brian Kelly Education Hampshire College | Years active 1990 – present Website www.briankelly.com Role Composer · briankelly.com Record label Skylight Music | |
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Albums Pools of Light, Afterplay, Butterfly Rapture, Expect a Miracle, Each Day Blues, Receding Choir Genres Instrumental, Neoclassical new-age music, Jazz fusion, Smooth jazz Similar People Steven Cravis, Robby Maria, LZ7, In Legend, Indian Ropeman Profiles | ||
Brian Kelly is an American composer, pianist, and recording artist producing contemporary instrumental and solo piano music.
Contents
Career
Brian’s latest release, Butterfly Rapture (his first solo piano album), is a collection of twelve neoclassical pieces with jazz, gospel, and Celtic influences. The album has been nominated 2015 “Contemporary and Modern” Album of the Year by SoloPiano.com.
Brian’s previous album, Afterplay, was awarded second place in the “Best Instrumental Jazz Album” category of the Just Plain Folks Music Awards and “#2 Contemporary Jazz Album” by Independent Music Awards. Afterplay ranked third on the Zone Music Reporter Top 100 Radio Chart for three months in a row (November 2008 thru January 2009) and was chosen as a “Best of 2008” pick by Audiosyncracy. The album features Eric Crystal on sax, Viviana Guzman on flute, and David Rokeach on drums.
Brian’s debut album, Pools of Light, charted #1 on the New Age Reporter international radio charts for two months in a row (June and July 2005) and garnered him a “Best New Artist” nomination in the 2005 Lifestyle Music Awards. Pools of Light was named among the Top 40 Favorite CDs of the Decade (2000-2009) by Kathy Parsons of MainlyPiano.com.
Brian was Keyboard magazine’s Annual Reader Tape Contest winner for the recording of his composition “Todd Pond,” which is included on the Flexi-disc Soundpage in the February 1990 issue. His music has been featured in television (Travel Channel, BBC Worldwide, MTV), film (NBA Entertainment), in-flight programming (United, JetBlue, Continental, Southwest), and receives airplay from radio stations and satellite music networks around the world (Music Choice, Sirius XM radio, Pandora Radio). His sheet music songbooks, published by Skylight Music, include: Pools of Light Solo Piano Songbook and Tomorrow's Daydream Solo Piano Songbook.
Background
Born in New York City, Brian grew up in Palo Alto, California. He began his piano studies at age 8, creating pieces for his mother who played classical piano at home and violin for a community opera company. Brian has extensive experience as a stage actor and singer, having performed in numerous plays and musical theatre productions, including several leading roles at TheatreWorks (Silicon Valley) and the Palo Alto Children’s Theatre. He studied music composition with Lewis Spratlan at Amherst College and Roland Wiggins at Hampshire College; improvisation with members of the world-fusion group Oregon (Ralph Towner and Paul McCandless) and pianist Art Lande at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado; and jazz piano with Andy LaVerne in New York City.
Brian is a graduate of Hampshire College, a voting member of the Recording Academy, and currently resides with his wife and their two tuxedo cats in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Albums
Compilations
Sheet Music
Awards
Songs
She Is Dancing
I Can Still See You
Just Keep Talking
Expect a Miracle
Calling as I do
Reach for the Stars
Something in Me Knows
Afterplay
Spiral Moon
Unfolding
Lilac Horizon
What I'm here for
With Eyes Closed
Room for Sky
Angels Breathing
Flag
All those little things
Playing My Heart
River Rush
Home at Last
Stone Shine
Flowers at Her Feet
New Vision
Spinnin' Down
View From the Swing
Rain
Niko's Delight
Goodnight
The Receding Choir
Angel
Sacred Waters
Piano Escapade