Derek Lawrence Keller is an American composer, guitarist, vocalist, and teacher. Keller previously served as a visiting Assistant Professor of music composition at Oberlin Conservatory of Music

Oberlin Conservatory of Music

The Oberlin Conservatory of Music, located on the campus of Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, was founded in 1865 and is the oldest continuously operating conservatory in the United States. Students of Oberlin Conservatory enter a very broad network within the music world, as the school's alumni...

, and he currently curates the music series for St. Paul's Episcopal Church, focusing on highlighting original avant-garde and improvisational music.

Keller earned a B.Mus. in Music Composition and Guitar as well as an M.M. in Music Composition at the University of Georgia

University of Georgia

The University of Georgia is a public research university located in Athens, Georgia, United States. Founded in 1785, it is the oldest and largest of the state's institutions of higher learning and is one of multiple schools to claim the title of the oldest public university in the United States...

. He holds a Ph.D. in Music Composition from University of California at San Diego, where he studied under the direction of Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Roger Reynolds

Roger Reynolds

Roger Reynolds is an American composer born July 18, 1934 in Detroit, Michigan. He is a professor at the University of California at San Diego. He received an undergraduate degree in engineering physics from the University of Michigan where he later studied composition with Ross Lee Finney...

. He has also studied composition with Anthony Davis

Anthony Davis (composer)

Anthony Davis, better known as Tony Davis , is an American composer, jazz pianist, and student of gamelan music.-Biography:...

, Chaya Czernowin

Chaya Czernowin

Chaya Czernowin is an Israeli composer, and Walter Bigelow Rosen Professor of Music at Harvard University....

, Rand Steiger

Rand Steiger

Rand Steiger is an American composer, conductor, and pedagogue.Steiger became a faculty member at the California Institute of the Arts in 1982, remaining there until 1987...

, George Crumb

George Crumb

George Crumb is an American composer of contemporary classical music. He is noted as an explorer of unusual timbres, alternative forms of notation, and extended instrumental and vocal techniques. Examples include seagull effect for the cello , metallic vibrato for the piano George Crumb (born...

, Jean-Luc Hervé, Brian Ferneyhough

Brian Ferneyhough

Brian John Peter Ferneyhough is an English composer. His music is characterized by the extensive use of complex rhythmic tuplet notation which features in all his works...

, David Lang

David Lang (composer)

David Lang is an American composer living in New York City. He was awarded the 2008 Pulitzer Prize for Music for The Little Match Girl Passion.-Biography:...

, and Charles Wuorinen

Charles Wuorinen

Charles Peter Wuorinen is a prolific Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer born and living in New York City. His catalog of more than 250 compositions includes works for orchestra, opera, chamber music, as well as solo instrumental and vocal works...

.

Keller has received many commissions, including from John Zorn

John Zorn

John Zorn is an American avant-garde composer, arranger, record producer, saxophonist and multi-instrumentalist. Zorn is a prolific artist: he has hundreds of album credits as performer, composer, or producer...

, RedFishBlueFish, Groundworks Dance Theater, Cappella Gloriana, Athens Master Chorale, Truman State University

Truman State University

Truman State University is a public liberal arts and sciences university in Missouri, United States and a member of the Council of Public Liberal Arts Colleges. About 6,000 students attend Truman, pursuing degrees in 43 undergraduate and 9 Graduate programs. It is located in Kirksville in...

, and MACRO Analysis Creative Research Organization.

Keller was born in Philadelphia. He has lived in St. Louis, Atlanta, and La Jolla. He currently resides in Sacramento, California.

Discography

Impositions and Consequences (2007). Tzadik 8032. Featuring original works for chamber orchestra, voice, solo electric guitar, and percussion quartet performed by the world-renown RedFishBlueFish.

Remedy (2006), Morris Palter. Centaur CRC 2742. Featuring works by Derek Keller, Attitudes...Assumptions Shattered; Karlheinz Stockhausen, Matthew Burtner, James Dillon, Thomas DeLio, David Lang, and Jean-Charles François.

Colin McAllister and Derek Keller: Solos and Duos for Guitar (2004). Old King Cole OKCD2006. Featuring works by Steve Reich

Steve Reich

Stephen Michael "Steve" Reich is an American composer who together with La Monte Young, Terry Riley, and Philip Glass is a pioneering composer of minimal music...

, Franco Donotoni, Tristan Murail

Tristan Murail

Tristan Murail is a French composer. His father, Gérard Murail, is a poet and his mother, Marie-Thérèse Barrois, a journalist. One of his brothers, Lorris Murail, and his younger sister Elvire Murail, aka Moka, also write, and his younger sister Marie-Aude Murail is a French children's writer...

, Chris Mercer, Derek Keller, and Helmut Lachenmann

Helmut Lachenmann

Helmut Lachenmann is a German composer associated with musique concrète instrumentale.-Life and works:...

.

Channel Crossings (2002), Cappella Gloriana. Old King Cole OKCD005. Choral music.

Compositions

Fear Ego Love (2003–2004) for amplified mixed quartet, rock band and chamber choir.

Attitudes…Self-reflection (Spring 2003) for electric guitar and interactive computer accompaniment.

Eruptive Plains (1999) for winds, percussion and piano.

Triaxis (1998) for violin, b-flat clarinet doubling bass clarinet, and guitar.

Holtranix II: an interactive improvisation for solo MIDI controller and computer (1997).

Holtranix I: an improvisation for soloist and computer (1996–1997).

Three Pieces for Piano (1996).

Character Piece (1996) for brass quintet.

Night of Hell: a mini musical drama for computer sound and baritone/tenor voice (1995–96).

Sonus in Contiuum: Breach, Core, Edge (1994) for electric, percussion, and soprano saxophone.

Four Pieces (1994) for cello and piano.

Psyche (1993) for flute, clarinet, oboe, amplified guitar, violin, cello, and soprano.

External links

• Derek Keller Music for complete list of compositions and performances
• Tzadik for latest recording
• "Sound Chaser: Local Guitarist-Composer Derek Keller Launches his Latest Hybrid Vehicle," by Edward Dunn for Sacramento News and Review, November 1, 2007.
• Institut de Recherche et Coordination Acoustique/Musique (IRCAM)
• "An Aural Carnival Ride," by Edward Ortiz for Sacramento Bee, May 20, 2007
• [ AllMusicGuide.com by Stephen Eddins, May 2007]
• "Distinguished Composer, Truman Musicians to Perform at 2006 New Music Festival," Truman Today, vol. 11, no. 9, October 24, 2006