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Photo: Phyllis Wong - Phyllis Photography

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Keyna Wilkins is a pioneering Australian/British composer-musician. Characterised by an ongoing fascination with astronomical phenomena and the incorporation of jazz harmonies, improvisation, electroacoustic elements and dance forms into her compositions, her works are engaging, diverse and linked to her personal spirituality. Her music as been described as "Arresting, genre-blurring..disquieting music with massive breadth and high drama." John Shand, Sydney Morning Herald and "Full of sonic textures and infinite possibility." - Peter Wockner, Jazz and Beyond (Ephemera's Orbits and Riffs album).

She is a finalist in the 2018 nation-wide APRA/AMCOS Art Music Awards for Excellence by an Individual. Engagements this year include performing in Extended Play New Music Micro-Festival at City Recital Hall Aug 25th with her trio, Ephemera, performances of her chamber works at the World Saxophone Congress (Zagreb, Croatia) by Australasian Saxophone Quartet, and at the Singapore Saxophone Symposium by Joseph Lallo, commissioned by Preston Symphony Orchestra (Melbourne) to compose Preston By Night premierred Nov 25th at Preston City Hall and commissioned by Briana Leaman to write a solo oboe piece for a series of recitals as well as numerous solo and trio performances by herself of her own works.

Published by Wirripang, her works have been performed around Europe and Australia including the Victoria Rooms (Bristol, UK), Hildesheim Audimax Theatre (Germany), Art Gallery of NSW, the Basement, Royal Easter Show Main Arena, Seymour Centre, Sydney Conservatorium's Verbruggen Hall, Melbourne Conservatorium's Melba Hall, Adelaide University's Henze Recital Room by ensembles such as Australasian Saxophone Quartet, Collide Trio (Melbourne), Ensemble Muse, Sydney Conservatroium Sax Orchestra, Spanish Encounters International Piano Symposium Ensemble and flamenco ensembles Pena Flamenca and Arrebato as well as soloists pianist Elodie Sablier (France), flautist Alison Mitchell (UK/AUS) and double bassist Elsen Price. She also has four tunes in the Australian Jazz Realbook and writes music for independent films.

In addition, Wilkins is a versatile improvising flautist and pianist. With international classical training she has branched into jazz, experimental live theatre, flamenco fusion and improvisation in a wide range of ensembles. In 2015 she formed her own trio, Ephemera, and after a series of successful shows around Sydney, were invited to feature at the Sydney International Women's Jazz Festival in 2017 and released their debut album to critical acclaim. In the same year she presented her Keys Across the Sky solo piano album as a lecture/recital at the Australasian Piano Pedagogy Conference held at Adelaide University and launched her flamenco and jazz-infused solo flute album, Air in Motion, at the Flute Tree Studio (Leichhardt). In 2013 Sydney Conservatorium Spanish Encounters Piano Symposium commissioned her to devise one of her own pieces Luna Llena for their ensemble and Marquez Laundry Theatre Company commissioned her to write the music for the abstract play Fred and Ginger at Sydney Fringe Festival. Other highlights include opening the Adelaide Fringe Festival with Flamenco Australia in 2012 and opening the Picasso Exhibition at the Art Gallery of NSW with French noir trio Les Violettes in 2011.

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 and Martin Wesley-Smith (Sydney Conservatorium), jazz piano with Oliver Gross (Hildesheim Univeristy, Germany) and flute performance with Nicholas Vallis Davis including completing her MA Flute Performance at Bristol University in 2008 and BA Mus in 2003.

Keyna Wilkins — current to July 2018