Nigel Keay

From Sequenza21/NetNewMusic Wiki

Nigel Keay was born in Palmerston North, New Zealand in 1955. He has been a freelance musician since 1983 working as a composer, violist, and violin teacher. Nigel Keay has held the following composer residencies: Mozart Fellow, University of Otago 1986 and 1987, Nelson School of Music 1988 and 89, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra 1995.

Between 1983 and 1995 he received several grants from the Arts Council of New Zealand for various commissions, one of them being a one-act opera At the Hawk'™s Well. His music, which ranges from solo and chamber music combinations to full symphony orchestra, has sometimes been driven by literary and philosophical ideas. Throughout his career he has wherever possible played in or directed his own works. He became an Associate-Violist with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in 1994.

Nigel Keay moved to France in 1998 and lives now in Paris where he continues to work as a freelance composer/violist. His work for piano "the dancer leads the procession" was written for Jeffrey Grice and first performed by him in Paris. In 2002 he was commissioned by Radio France to compose a work for multiple broadcasts on its France Musiques and France Culture stations (Tango Suite). Between 2003 and 2005 he gave multiple performances of his String Quartet No.2 in Paris and Bavaria with his own group, Quatuor Aphanès.

In 2006 Nigel Keay co-founded the orchestra "Orchestre 2021" with the conductor Elizabeth Askren. Nigel Keay participates as a violist in this orchestra. The group performed his Serenade for Strings in 2006 and his Diffractions for Piano and Orchestra in 2007 in Paris.

Nigel Keay is violist in a Parisian string quartet formed in 2005 around the distinguished violinist Daniel Rémy, a former violin soloist of the Orchestra of the National Opera in Paris.

Major Works

String Quartet No. 2 (15 min.) (1995)
Viola Concerto (24 min.) (2000)
Symphony in Five Movements (24 min.) (1996)
At the Hawk's Well (52 min.) (1992)
Serenade for Strings (17 min.) (2002)

External links

Nigel Keay's Site with Audio, Scores and Programme Notes
Nigel Keay's String Quartet