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Photo: Natasha Blankfield

Andrea Keller is an improvising pianist and composer, dedicated to the performance and creation of contemporary jazz and improvised music. She has devised and produced a multitude of projects, ranging from solo to large ensembles steeped in both jazz and Western art music traditions. Her projects focus on the creation of new music with an emphasis on improvisation, collaboration, and an expanding skill set (often including electronics, preparations, photographic images, poetry, film, and collaborations with musicians entrenched in varying musical traditions).

Keller currently leads the following working projects: Monday nights at the Jazzlab (curating & performing), 'Transients' (a series of trios presented every Thursday night at Uptown Jazz Café), Five Below (quintet featuring Stephen Magnusson, Sam Anning, Mick Meagher, James McLean & Andrea Keller), Journey Home (solo piano collaboration with photographer/film-maker Hayley Miro), 'Masters & Apprentices' (ensembles of established & emerging musicians), Piano Club (solo piano concerts featuring Australian pianists and Q&A's), 'the Composers Circle' (6-piece ensemble of composers/performers), Solo/Duo/Trio (new collaborations in various groupings), 'Celebrating Voice' (series featuring vocalists who perform original and Australian material), and 'Girls Do Jazz' (workshop series for young female and non-binary students).

Past projects devised and led by Keller include: Still Night: Music in Poetry (featuring Vince Jones, Gian Slater, Julien Wilson, Stephen Magnusson & Andrea Keller), The Komeda Project (co-led with Miroslav Bukowsky and featuring James Greening, Erkki Veltheim, Andrew Robson, Ben Hauptman, Jonathan Zwartz, Evan Mannell & Andrea Keller. Reworking the music of Krzysztof Komeda), 'The Company of Pianos' (a series of two-piano concerts featuring Tony Gould, Barney McAll, Sam Keevers, Tim Stevens, Matt McMahon, Luke Howard & Mike Nock with Andrea Keller), From Ether (Gian Slater, Geoff Hughes & Andrea Keller - music to images from the International Space Station), Family Portraits (solo piano with preparations, loop pedal and effects), Three Lanes (Genevieve Lacey - recorders, Joe Talia - revox tape machine & Andrea Keller - piano), the Andrea Keller Quintet/Quartet (featuring Eugene Ball - trumpet, Ian Whitehurst - saxophone, Joe Talia/Danny Fischer/Dave Beck - drums, Matt Clohesy - double bass with Andrea Keller), the Wayne Shorter Project (solo piano/nord reworking of Wayne Shorter compositions), and the Bartok Project (reworkings of Bartok's Mikrokosmos for improvising musicians).

Keller is a current member of the Australian Art Orchestra, the Sam Anning Sextet, Tim Wilson/Andrea Keller duo, Johannes Leubbers Dectet, Vanessa Perica Orchestra, and more. The diversity of her approach has placed her on stage with artists and ensembles such as; Lano & Woodley, Genevieve Lacey, Nicole Lizee (CA), Ronan Guilfoyle (IE), Arve Henriksen (Norway), John Surman (UK), the Song Company, Eddie Perfect, the Black Arm Band, the Australian Art Orchestra, Flinders Quartet, The Letter String Quartet, Allan Browne, Sandy Evans, the Bennetts Lane Big Band, Bernie McGann, Ten Part Invention, Mike Nock, Barney McAll, James Crabb, Tony Gould and more.

As a composer, Keller has been commissioned by a variety of musicians, ensembles and organisations to compose and arrange music. She is driven to explore new musical territory without boundary, and with a focus on collaborative processes and developing a strong musical identity. Keller is a represented artist of the Australian Music Centre.

Commissions include: Adelaide Festival /Chamber Landscapes Commissioning Circle, The Australian Art Orchestra, Victorian College of the Arts Secondary School, Merlyn Myer Composing Women's Commission, Solstice Trio, the Sydney Women's Jazz Collective, the Letter String Quartet, The Song Company, Marshall McGuire, Zephyr String Quartet, the Black Arm Band, Genevieve Lacey & James Crabb Duo, Poetica/ABC Radio National, Genevieve Lacey, Four Winds Festival/Kier Foundation, Australian National University Canberra, Claire Edwardes, Melbourne Women's International Jazz Festival, Seraphim Trio, Ten Part Invention, Royal Children's Hospital/Freedman Foundation, and Mike Nock's BigSmallBand.

Keller's discography includes numerous albums as leader, co-leader, and soloist, as well as appearances on others as a collaborator, side-person and composer. The most recent of these include: Life is Brut[if]al - Andrea Keller Five Below, Transients Volumes 1 & 2 - Andrea Keller; Five Below Live - Andrea Keller; Love is a Temporary Madness - Vanessa Perica Orchestra; Other Worlds - Johannes Leubbers Dectet; The Composers Voice - Elly Hoyt; The Komeda Project - Andrea Keller & Miroslav Bukovsky Octet; Still Night: Music in Poetry - Andrea Keller; Across A Field As Vast As One - Sam Anning Sextet; Finding the Balance - Paul Williamson Quintet; Offspring Bites 2 - Ensemble Offspring; and Move 50 - Michael Kieran Harvey & various artists.

Highly lauded for her music in Australia, Keller has received numerous awards for her albums, ensembles and compositions, including; multiple ARIA, Australian Jazz Bell, and Art Music Awards, as well as the Melbourne Prize for Music Beleura Emerging Composer Award, the Merlyn Myer Composing Women's Commission, a Music Victoria Award, an APRA Professional Development Award, a fellowship from the Australia Council, and the inaugural MCA/Freedman Foundation Jazz Fellowship.

Andrea Keller — current to June 2020