Brian Kelly

About Brian Kelly

Pianist and composer Brian Kelly is known for his softly textured and lyrical contemporary instrumental recordings. It's a style he first debuted on 2005's Pools of Light, and further expanded upon with 2008's small group Afterplay and 2015's solo piano recording Butterfly Rapture. Born in 1960 in New York City, Kelly was raised in Palo Alto, California, where he first started taking piano lessons at age eight with his mother, a classical pianist. He was soon crafting his own pieces at home and playing violin for a community opera company. Growing up, he was involved in musicals and plays, including several productions at TheatreWorks and the Palo Alto Children's Theatre. After high school, Kelly honed his skills studying music composition with Roland Wiggins at Hampshire College and Lewis Spratlan at Amherst College. He also studied jazz improvisation with Ralph Towner and Paul McCandless. Later, he studied with pianist Art Lande at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and with Andy LaVerne in New York City. Basing himself in the San Francisco Bay Area, Kelly made his debut as leader with 2005's Pools of Light, which garnered radio play and eventually landed at number one on the NAR Top 100 Radio Chart. He followed with 2008's Afterplay, which featured contributions by saxophonist Eric Crystal, guitarist James Robinson, trumpeter Ross Wilson, and others. In 2015, Kelly released his first album of solo piano music, Butterfly Rapture. A second set of solo piano recordings, Tomorrow's Daydream, arrived in 2018 and picked up accolades at the independent Global Music Awards, including silver medals for Album and Instrumental Performance, Solo. Kelly also issued a number of stand-alone tracks, including 2019's "From Nowhere" with saxophonist Crystal, 2020's solo piano recordings "Into the Garden," and "Trees in the Mist." ~ Matt Collar

GENRE
New Age

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