Brian Kelly (composer)
Brian Kelly is an American composer, pianist, and recording artist creating contemporary instrumental music.
Career
Brian Kelly is winner of the Keyboard Magazine Soundpage Award for his original composition "Todd Pond". In 2005 he released his debut album of piano instrumentals, Pools of Light, on the Skylight Music label. The album charted No. 1 for two months on modern instrumental radio in North America. Brian was nominated for the 2005 New Age Reporter Lifestyle Music Awards' Best New Artist. In 2006 he published Pools of Light: the Solo Piano Songbook (79 pages), a collection of solo piano arrangements of 12 songs from his Pools of Light CD. In 2008 Brian released Afterplay, his second CD of piano-based instrumental music. The album charted No. 3 for three consecutive months on the NAR Top 100 radio Chart., and was awarded second place in the "Best Instrumental Jazz Album of 2009" category in the Just Plain Folks Music Awards. The album includes the world-renowned talents of Eric Crystal on sax, David Rokeach on drums, Viviana Guzman on flute, and James Robinson on guitar. In 2010 Brian published "Tomorrow's Daydream: Solo Piano Songbook" (84 pages), a collection of sheetmusic transcriptions of 11 solo piano pieces from his forthcoming album. His music can be heard on Music Choice cable, Sirius XM radio, and on a number of different national TV shows including Travel Channel (The Relic Hunter), and on TV and radio commercials.
Background
Born in New York City, Brian grew up in Palo Alto, California. He began piano at age 8. His experience as a stage actor and performer in numerous plays and MusicAL theatre productions at TheatreWorks (Silicon Valley) 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. Brian is a graduate of Hampshire College and a voting member of the Recording Academy. He studied music composition with Lewis Spratlan and jazz piano with Art Lande and Andy LaVerne. He resides in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Discography
Albums
- 2005 Pools of Light
- 2008 Afterplay
Compilations
- 2005 Expect a Miracle, Orange Music
- 2005 Oasis New Age Sampler V.5, features the song "Open Sky" on disc 1, track No. 12
- 2008 Music In Motion: The Best of NewAgePiano.net, features the song "Angels Breathing" on track No. 19
- 2012 Healing Flutes, features the song "Heaven on Earth" on track No. 8.
Songbooks
- Tomorrow's Daydream Solo Piano Songbook (2010, 84 pgs., ISBN 978-0-9794220-4-1, Skylight Music)
- Pools of Light Solo Piano Songbook (2011, 88 pgs., ISBN 978-0-9794220-1-0, Skylight Music)
Awards
- Keyboard Magazine 5th Annual Reader's Soundpage Award
- 1990, recording of winning composition, "Todd Pond", included on Flexi Disc in February 1990 issue.
- NAR Lifestyle Music Awards
- 2005 nominee, Best New Artist
- Just Plain Folks Music Awards
- 2009 second place, Best Instrumental Jazz Album: Afterplay
- 2009 nominee, Best Instrumental Jazz Song: "Celtic Fire" from Afterplay