BIOGRAPHY
Keyna Wilkins is a pioneering Australian/British composer-musician. She is a two-time finalist for the Australian Art Music Awards for Individual Excellence for "recording and developing new projects in 2020" and "activities in original art music throughout 2017 as a composer-musician including releasing three original albums" (APRA/AMCOS). She has written over 60 compositions including a didgeridoo concerto, "Celestial Emu", that are performed internationally and published by Wirripang. Her music is characterised by a passion for human rights, astronomy, Indigenous culture, jazz, intuitive improvisation and existential quests. As an innovative soloist and leader of cutting edge ensembles, she has been heralded by UK's Jazz Journal as a "powerhouse player", and "fine and nuanced playing throughout" by Limelight Magazine and is described by Australian Jazz as being "unconstrained by labels and is constantly exploring new ways to express herself musically". Her compositions have been described as by The Sydney Morning Herald as "arresting, genre-blurring, disquieting music with massive breadth and high drama". She has released 9 albums of original music on all streaming platforms including 4 solo albums. Her latest album in 2021, "Set Me Free", a collaboration with a 9 year innocent detained refugee poet-artist, Jalal Mahamede, has been described by New York DooBeeDoo arts magazine as "Beautiful and sobering...and important story to tell".
EDUCATION
Having completed her Master of Music Composition at Sydney Conservatorium in 2016 under the supervision of Professor Anne Boyd and Doctor Rosalind Page, she also studied composition with Sadie Harrison (Bath Spa University, UK), Jessica Wells, Martin Wesley-Smith (Sydney Conservatorium, Australia) and intuitive conceptual improvisation with Tibetan Buddhist musician Tenzin Cheogyal. She studied classical piano with Jeanell Carrigan and Julie Adam, jazz piano with Oliver Gross (Hildesheim University, Germany) and classical flute with Nicholas Vallis-Davis, Laura Chislett, Richard Dobson (Bath Spa University, UK), Richard Douglas (Bristol University, UK) and Alison Mitchell including completing her MA Flute Performance at Bristol University (UK) in 2008 and BA Mus in 2003. She has since freelanced in many classical, jazz, flamenco, tango, free improvisation and theatre projects around the world.
COMPOSER
Wilkins has written over 60 art music compositions published by Wirripang, and performed internationally. She is an Associate Artist with the Australian Music Centre and has five tunes in the Australian Jazz Realbook. She also writes music for films and theatre including short film "Remote Access" which won Best Short Film at the Imagine This International Film Festival in New York 2019 and was screened in festivals in Detroit, New York, Berlin. She has released 9 albums of original music and ABC recorded her composition "New Galaxy" which are regularly featured on radio stations such as ABC, Triple J, Double J, Fine Music FM, Eastside Radio, Cambridge Radio UK, SOAS London. "Celestial Emu" didgeridoo concerto is her most major work to date which she wrote in collaboration with leading didgeridoo player Gumaroy Newman for The Metropolitan Orchestra in 2020. Sydney Arts Guide writes about the world premiere at Seymour Centre Everest Theatre "To hear the unmistakable reference to First Nations song so well pitted against TMO’s Western Art Music instruments creating such evocative cells of expression with humility and sincerity in new music devoid of borrowings from tribal repertoire was a touching, inspiring and admirable step forward. it received an extended and hearty standing ovation and will add tremendously to our orchestral music canon."
Wilkins' art music compositions are performed around Australia and the world. Her works have been commissioned and/or performed by artists/ensembles such as The Metropolitan Orchestra, Syzygy Ensemble, Kammerklang, Elysian Fields, Quart-Ed, Lilith Night, Sydney Bach Society, Blackford and Collins brass ensemble, Preston Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Conservatorium Spanish Encounters Piano Symposium, Sydney Fringe Festival, Marquez Laundry Theatre Company, Australasian Saxophone Quartet, Collide Trio (Melbourne), Ensemble Muse (Sydney), Sydney Conservatorium Sax Orchestra, Marquez Laundry Theatre Company, flamenco ensembles Pena Flamenca and Arrebato and by soloists such as cellist Kathleen Balfe (Spain/US) bass flutist Donna M Wilson (USA), pianist Marisa Blanes Nadal (Spain), flutist Paula Bekker Draper (US/Russia) double bassist Frano Kakarigi (Spain), violinist Airena Nakamura (AUS/Japan), pianist Stefan Cassomenos (AUS/Greece), soprano Amelia Jones (AUS/Wales), saxophonist Joseph Lallo (AUS), pianist Elodie Sablier (FRANCE), flutist Alison Mitchell (UK/AUS), Kosmas Lapatas (Greece), flutist Caitlin Berger (Canada) violinist Airena Nakamura (JAPAN/AUS), double bassist Elsen Price, violist Carl St Jacques (US/AUS), violist Ryan Greiser (US), Taos Pianos (US), flutist Jessica Scott (UK/AUS), oboist Briana Leaman (USA/AUS) and trumpeter Will Gilbert (AUS), flutist Jean Penny (AUS), in venues such as Sydney Opera House, City Recital Hall (Sydney), Sydney Royal Easter Show, MONA (Museum Of Old and New Art), Seymour Centre Everest Theatre (Sydney), Riverside Theatre (Sydney), Melbourne Recital Centre, concert series around USA (including Alabama Schools of Arts, Universities of South Carolina, Vandebilt and Georgia and recitals at Cleveland Institute of Music, Wesleyan University and Taos Falls Arts Festival in New Mexico), Asia (Singapore Saxophone Symposium), Spain (University of Valencia, Santander Casyc-Up, Centre Civic Spring Concerts in Barna, Barcelona) Croatia (World Saxophone Congress, Zagreb), Ireland (Cork School of Music), Germany (Hildesheim Audimax Theatre), UK (Royal Academy of Music, Bristol Victoria Rooms, Bridgwater Arts Centre) and small venues around Poland.
PERFORMER
Wilkins has been developing her solo show since 2017. In her shows, she explores stream-of-consciousness improvisations alongside her composed pieces and re-interpretations, often using loop pedal and visual projections. She has a range of musical themes in her shows from human rights to astronomy to nature, and she tailors her shows to the venue and audience. UK Jazz Journal describes "Wilkins' Bach re-interpretations are meetings of minds" and Limelight describes her solo show as "an irresistible mix.... in equal parts jazz, Debussy and flamenco". She has worked with 6 refugees who have been held in Australian detention for 9 years without charge or trial via zoom from their prison cells. She has composed original music to their poetry and art and often uses these works in her shows. Her 9th album in 2021, "Set Me Free", was a collaboration with a 9 year innocent detained refugee poet-artist, Jalal Mahamede. It has been described by New York DooBeeDoo arts magazine as "Beautiful and sobering...and important story to tell" and by Sydney Morning Herald as ""The work endures as an act of solidarity; evidence that creative possibilities can be endless, even when trapped and in despair" . Outer space is a major inspiration for her music and she often uses open source NASA footage to accompany the performance. Her improvisations are spontaneous musical ideas inspired by her myriad of music experiences with the aim of synthesizing into one voice, creating emotional connection and attaining a meditative state. She has performed it at venues throughout Australia including Phoenix Central Park and Museum of Old and New Art (MONA, Tas), Sydney International Jazz Festival 2020, Melbourne Digital Recital Hall, Australian Flute Festival 2019, Australian Piano Pedagogy Conference 2017 and 2019. She has released 4 solo albums on all streaming platforms; So What Bach (solo piano), Keys Across The Sky (solo piano), Air In Motion (solo flute), Jazz Revere (solo piano).
In 2019 she founded the indigenous-jazz fusion duo Yulugi in collaboration with leading First Nations didgeridoo player Gumaroy Newman. Yulugi means to play, dance or have fun in Gamilaroi, the Northern NSW First Nations language. Sydney Morning Herald describes the duo as "instantly engaging ....with Gumaroy Newman’s arresting voice and yidaki leading us deep into his ancestral culture, in dialogue with Keyna Wilkins’ piano and luminous flutes" and Fine Music FM describes their debut album Chasing Stars To The Mother Tree (2020) as "This is virtuoso playing, worthy of any Australian collection". Performance highlights include Woodford Folk Festival and opening the Australian Flute Festival at Sydney Conservatorium Verbruggen Hall, Trengo Trengo Indigenous Festival and SIMA Summer Festival. In 2016 she founded the breakout space music sensation Ephemera Ensemble, which has been described by Jazz and Beyond as “Full of sonic textures and infinite possibility” and The Music Trust as "a sustained exploration of a certain sonic luminescence". Ephemera was featured at the Sydney International Women's Jazz Festival 2017 and at Extended Play Festival of New Music at City Recital Hall 2018, Psycon Festival 2021. Ephemera have released two albums; Orbits and Riffs (2017) and Blackholes and Modulations (2021). Wilkins is also a freelance musician in a number of flamenco, tango, jazz and classical, theatre and dance ensembles since 2000.
EDUCATOR AND PRESENTER
Wilkins has presented lecture/workshops twice at the Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference 2017 "Sky Pieces" and 2019 "Ad Libitum - semi-structured Improvisation at all stages to encourage self-expression" on piano teaching strategies at the Australian Flute Festival 2019 on "Composing for the Flute". She has also been guest speaker at The Women's Club "Trailblazers in Music" series 2021. Wilkins ran workshops at MLC Australian Music Day 2019 on "Improvisation as a Catalyst for Composition" flute improvisation workshops at Top Notes Music Studio and Loretto Kirribilli School as well as being a guest lecturer on a career in the arts at Wollongong University Creative Arts programme and a guest speaker in an online composer series run by New York Composer Collective. In 2021 she was a feature artist in Australia's premier classical music magazine, Limelight, with her article Improvisation Should Be A Democracy. Her article Music and Astronomy, based on her M Mus thesis, was published by University of Valencia's Revista De Investigacion de Musical (Journal of Musicological Studies, Spain). Wilkins was Amnesty International NSW Artist Network Coordinator in 2010, facilitating a refugee photo exhibition at Carriageworks and a refugee music concert at venue 505 (both in Sydney). She held the position Associate Lecturer in Music at Bridgwater College, Somerset UK 2006-09 and has been a private flute and piano teacher for 20 years in all styles and levels.
EDUCATION
Having completed her Master of Music Composition at Sydney Conservatorium in 2016 under the supervision of Professor Anne Boyd and Doctor Rosalind Page, she also studied composition with Sadie Harrison (Bath Spa University, UK), Jessica Wells, Martin Wesley-Smith (Sydney Conservatorium, Australia) and intuitive conceptual improvisation with Tibetan Buddhist musician Tenzin Cheogyal. She studied classical piano with Jeanell Carrigan and Julie Adam, jazz piano with Oliver Gross (Hildesheim University, Germany) and classical flute with Nicholas Vallis-Davis, Laura Chislett, Richard Dobson (Bath Spa University, UK), Richard Douglas (Bristol University, UK) and Alison Mitchell including completing her MA Flute Performance at Bristol University (UK) in 2008 and BA Mus in 2003. She has since freelanced in many classical, jazz, flamenco, tango, free improvisation and theatre projects around the world.
COMPOSER
Wilkins has written over 60 art music compositions published by Wirripang, and performed internationally. She is an Associate Artist with the Australian Music Centre and has five tunes in the Australian Jazz Realbook. She also writes music for films and theatre including short film "Remote Access" which won Best Short Film at the Imagine This International Film Festival in New York 2019 and was screened in festivals in Detroit, New York, Berlin. She has released 9 albums of original music and ABC recorded her composition "New Galaxy" which are regularly featured on radio stations such as ABC, Triple J, Double J, Fine Music FM, Eastside Radio, Cambridge Radio UK, SOAS London. "Celestial Emu" didgeridoo concerto is her most major work to date which she wrote in collaboration with leading didgeridoo player Gumaroy Newman for The Metropolitan Orchestra in 2020. Sydney Arts Guide writes about the world premiere at Seymour Centre Everest Theatre "To hear the unmistakable reference to First Nations song so well pitted against TMO’s Western Art Music instruments creating such evocative cells of expression with humility and sincerity in new music devoid of borrowings from tribal repertoire was a touching, inspiring and admirable step forward. it received an extended and hearty standing ovation and will add tremendously to our orchestral music canon."
Wilkins' art music compositions are performed around Australia and the world. Her works have been commissioned and/or performed by artists/ensembles such as The Metropolitan Orchestra, Syzygy Ensemble, Kammerklang, Elysian Fields, Quart-Ed, Lilith Night, Sydney Bach Society, Blackford and Collins brass ensemble, Preston Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Conservatorium Spanish Encounters Piano Symposium, Sydney Fringe Festival, Marquez Laundry Theatre Company, Australasian Saxophone Quartet, Collide Trio (Melbourne), Ensemble Muse (Sydney), Sydney Conservatorium Sax Orchestra, Marquez Laundry Theatre Company, flamenco ensembles Pena Flamenca and Arrebato and by soloists such as cellist Kathleen Balfe (Spain/US) bass flutist Donna M Wilson (USA), pianist Marisa Blanes Nadal (Spain), flutist Paula Bekker Draper (US/Russia) double bassist Frano Kakarigi (Spain), violinist Airena Nakamura (AUS/Japan), pianist Stefan Cassomenos (AUS/Greece), soprano Amelia Jones (AUS/Wales), saxophonist Joseph Lallo (AUS), pianist Elodie Sablier (FRANCE), flutist Alison Mitchell (UK/AUS), Kosmas Lapatas (Greece), flutist Caitlin Berger (Canada) violinist Airena Nakamura (JAPAN/AUS), double bassist Elsen Price, violist Carl St Jacques (US/AUS), violist Ryan Greiser (US), Taos Pianos (US), flutist Jessica Scott (UK/AUS), oboist Briana Leaman (USA/AUS) and trumpeter Will Gilbert (AUS), flutist Jean Penny (AUS), in venues such as Sydney Opera House, City Recital Hall (Sydney), Sydney Royal Easter Show, MONA (Museum Of Old and New Art), Seymour Centre Everest Theatre (Sydney), Riverside Theatre (Sydney), Melbourne Recital Centre, concert series around USA (including Alabama Schools of Arts, Universities of South Carolina, Vandebilt and Georgia and recitals at Cleveland Institute of Music, Wesleyan University and Taos Falls Arts Festival in New Mexico), Asia (Singapore Saxophone Symposium), Spain (University of Valencia, Santander Casyc-Up, Centre Civic Spring Concerts in Barna, Barcelona) Croatia (World Saxophone Congress, Zagreb), Ireland (Cork School of Music), Germany (Hildesheim Audimax Theatre), UK (Royal Academy of Music, Bristol Victoria Rooms, Bridgwater Arts Centre) and small venues around Poland.
PERFORMER
Wilkins has been developing her solo show since 2017. In her shows, she explores stream-of-consciousness improvisations alongside her composed pieces and re-interpretations, often using loop pedal and visual projections. She has a range of musical themes in her shows from human rights to astronomy to nature, and she tailors her shows to the venue and audience. UK Jazz Journal describes "Wilkins' Bach re-interpretations are meetings of minds" and Limelight describes her solo show as "an irresistible mix.... in equal parts jazz, Debussy and flamenco". She has worked with 6 refugees who have been held in Australian detention for 9 years without charge or trial via zoom from their prison cells. She has composed original music to their poetry and art and often uses these works in her shows. Her 9th album in 2021, "Set Me Free", was a collaboration with a 9 year innocent detained refugee poet-artist, Jalal Mahamede. It has been described by New York DooBeeDoo arts magazine as "Beautiful and sobering...and important story to tell" and by Sydney Morning Herald as ""The work endures as an act of solidarity; evidence that creative possibilities can be endless, even when trapped and in despair" . Outer space is a major inspiration for her music and she often uses open source NASA footage to accompany the performance. Her improvisations are spontaneous musical ideas inspired by her myriad of music experiences with the aim of synthesizing into one voice, creating emotional connection and attaining a meditative state. She has performed it at venues throughout Australia including Phoenix Central Park and Museum of Old and New Art (MONA, Tas), Sydney International Jazz Festival 2020, Melbourne Digital Recital Hall, Australian Flute Festival 2019, Australian Piano Pedagogy Conference 2017 and 2019. She has released 4 solo albums on all streaming platforms; So What Bach (solo piano), Keys Across The Sky (solo piano), Air In Motion (solo flute), Jazz Revere (solo piano).
In 2019 she founded the indigenous-jazz fusion duo Yulugi in collaboration with leading First Nations didgeridoo player Gumaroy Newman. Yulugi means to play, dance or have fun in Gamilaroi, the Northern NSW First Nations language. Sydney Morning Herald describes the duo as "instantly engaging ....with Gumaroy Newman’s arresting voice and yidaki leading us deep into his ancestral culture, in dialogue with Keyna Wilkins’ piano and luminous flutes" and Fine Music FM describes their debut album Chasing Stars To The Mother Tree (2020) as "This is virtuoso playing, worthy of any Australian collection". Performance highlights include Woodford Folk Festival and opening the Australian Flute Festival at Sydney Conservatorium Verbruggen Hall, Trengo Trengo Indigenous Festival and SIMA Summer Festival. In 2016 she founded the breakout space music sensation Ephemera Ensemble, which has been described by Jazz and Beyond as “Full of sonic textures and infinite possibility” and The Music Trust as "a sustained exploration of a certain sonic luminescence". Ephemera was featured at the Sydney International Women's Jazz Festival 2017 and at Extended Play Festival of New Music at City Recital Hall 2018, Psycon Festival 2021. Ephemera have released two albums; Orbits and Riffs (2017) and Blackholes and Modulations (2021). Wilkins is also a freelance musician in a number of flamenco, tango, jazz and classical, theatre and dance ensembles since 2000.
EDUCATOR AND PRESENTER
Wilkins has presented lecture/workshops twice at the Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference 2017 "Sky Pieces" and 2019 "Ad Libitum - semi-structured Improvisation at all stages to encourage self-expression" on piano teaching strategies at the Australian Flute Festival 2019 on "Composing for the Flute". She has also been guest speaker at The Women's Club "Trailblazers in Music" series 2021. Wilkins ran workshops at MLC Australian Music Day 2019 on "Improvisation as a Catalyst for Composition" flute improvisation workshops at Top Notes Music Studio and Loretto Kirribilli School as well as being a guest lecturer on a career in the arts at Wollongong University Creative Arts programme and a guest speaker in an online composer series run by New York Composer Collective. In 2021 she was a feature artist in Australia's premier classical music magazine, Limelight, with her article Improvisation Should Be A Democracy. Her article Music and Astronomy, based on her M Mus thesis, was published by University of Valencia's Revista De Investigacion de Musical (Journal of Musicological Studies, Spain). Wilkins was Amnesty International NSW Artist Network Coordinator in 2010, facilitating a refugee photo exhibition at Carriageworks and a refugee music concert at venue 505 (both in Sydney). She held the position Associate Lecturer in Music at Bridgwater College, Somerset UK 2006-09 and has been a private flute and piano teacher for 20 years in all styles and levels.
