Biography

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 New Zealand composer-in-residence position, the Mozart Fellowship, at the University of Otago (1986 and 1987). He has been Composer-in-Residence with the Nelson School of Music (1988 and 1989), and with Auckland’s fulltime professional orchestra, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra (1995).

Between 1983 and 1995 he received several grants from the Arts Council of New Zealand (Creative 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. 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 Aphanes’. In 2004 and 2005 Nigel Keay also played in a flute, viola and harp trio, writing for this group while also presenting other repertoire for this combination.

The Parisian string orchestra, Orchestre a cordes Idomenee presented Nigel Keay’s ‘Serenade for Strings’ in its first programme in 2005. This work was performed in December 2006 at the Fondation des États Unis in Paris by the String Orchestra of APIEM, “Orchestre 2021”, an orchestra that Nigel Keay co-founded with its conductor Elizabeth Askren. Nigel Keay plays in a String Quartet with Daniel Remy, Iwona Gotowecka and Dimitri Kindynis.

Nigel Keay plays on a viola made by Friedrich Alber of Montpellier.

Selected Works

• Publications (1)
• Works (31)
• Awards (8)
• Resources (1)
• Media On Demand (2)