SOUNDS GOOD: Conversations with Australia Music Makers

In this episode, Australian Composer, Christopher Healey, chats with Sydney composer, Keyna Wilkins. In this episode, we talk about Keyna's work, her love of astronomy, approach to improvisation and teaching, and collaborations with First Nations musicians.

About Keyna:

"Wilkins is a powerhouse player."

- JAZZ JOURNAL UK 2021

"New music and jazz composer, and multi-talented musician Wilkins... is in equal parts Debussy, Miles Davis and flamenco. It all makes for an irresistible mix"​

- LIMELIGHT MAGAZINE 2021 ​

Keyna Wilkins is a pioneering Australian/British composer-musician. She was one of three finalists in the Australian nation-wide APRA/AMCOS Art Music Awards for Individual Excellence 2018. Her compositions are performed internationally and published by Wirripang. An innovative solo artist and leader of cutting-edge chamber groups, her music is characterized by a fascination with astronomy, First Nations culture, jazz, dance forms and intuitive improvisation.

Originally classically trained in flute, piano and composition in UK, Germany and Australia and subsequently branching into jazz, flamenco and tango, Wilkins has also studied intuitive conceptual improvisation with Tibetan Buddhist musician Tenzin Cheogyal. Stylistically broad, inspired by Debussy and Miles Davis in equal measure, her music embarks on a journey of impressionistic dream-like sequences alongside landscape depictions, existential spiritual quests, and whimsical gestures alongside driving rhythms.

She performs her own solo compositions and improvisations with projections and loop pedal at venues all over Australia including Pheonix Central Park and Museum of Old and New Art (MONA, Tas) and launching her solo piano JS Bach interpretations album "So What Bach" at Sydney International Jazz Festival 2020.  In 2019 she founded the indigenous-jazz fusion duo Yulugi in collaboration with leading First Nations didgeridu player Gumaroy Newman and received rave reviews. Yulugi means to play, dance or have fun in Gamilaroi, the Northern NSW First Nations language.  Performance highlights include Woodford Folk Festival 2019-2020 and opening the Australian Flute Festival at Sydney Conservatorium Verbruggen Hall 2019. 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.  

Published by Wirripang, her compositions are performed around the world including USA (concert series at Universities of South Carolina, Vandebilt and Georgia and recitals at Cleveland Institute of Music, Welseyan University and Taos Falls Arts Festival in New Mexico), Asia (Singapore Saxophone Symposium), Croatia (World Saxophone Congress, Zagreb), Ireland (Cork School of Music), Germany (Hildesheim Audimax Theatre), UK (Bristol Victoria Rooms, Bridgwater Arts Centre), as well as Australia (Sydney Opera House, MONA, Sydney's City Recital Hall, Art Gallery of NSW, Royal Easter Show Main Arena, Melbourne's Preston Town Hall, Melbourne Conservatorium Melba Hall, Adelaide's University Henze Room and Beamont House, Brisbane Conservatorium). Her works have been commissioned and/or performed by artists and ensembles such as The Metropolitan Orchestra, Syzygy Ensemble, Elysian Fields, Preston Symphony Orchestra (Melbourne), Lilith Night (including ABC recordings) Sydney Conservatorium Spanish Encounters Piano Symposium, 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 bass flutist Donna M Wilson (USA), saxophonist Joseph Lallo (AUS), pianist Elodie Sablier (FRANCE), flutist Alison Mitchell (UK/AUS), Kosmas Lapatas (GREECE), 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 (AUS), oboist Briana Leaman (USA/AUS) and trumpeter Will Gilbert (AUS). 

She 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 MLC Australian Music Day 2019 on "Improvisation as a Catalyst for Composition" and at the Australian Flute Festival 2019 on "Composing for the Flute." Her article Improvisation Should Be A Democracy was published by Limelight, the leading Australian classical music magazine. 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).  She held the position Associate Lecturer in Music at Bridgwater College, Somerset UK 2006-09.  

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), classical piano with Jeanell Carrigan and Julie Adam, jazz piano with Oliver Gross (Hildesheim University, Germany) and flute performance with Nicholas Vallis-Davis, Laura Chislett and Alison Mitchell including completing her MA Flute Performance at Bristol University (UK) in 2008 and BA Mus in 2003. Since then she has freelanced in a wide range of ensembles in many genres such as jazz and experimental live theatre.

Keyna's Links:

Website: www.keynawilkins.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/keynawilkinsmusic/

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1dYVaKWyIf9lwwHwzXSVbA

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/keynawilkins/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Keynawilkins

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/keyna-wilkins-78002918/?trk=hp-identity-name