Brian P. Keenan
was born into a very musical family December 31, 1971 in St. Paul, Minnesota. He began taking
piano lessons at age ten and started playing classic ragtime shortly thereafter. He began
composing at twelve, and in 1988 his "Denn Also Hat Gott Die Welt Geliebt" for chorus
and piano won first place in the West Central division in the high school classification of the
Music Teachers National Association/Columbia Pictures Publications Student Composition Contest.
Keenan was introduced to the world of new ragtime when he met Frank French, David Thomas Roberts, and Jack Rummel in 1991. In 1994 he graduated with honors from the University of Colorado-Boulder where he studied composition, piano and harpsichord, and was a member of the school's Early Music and Electronic Music ensembles. He was also the first recipient of the university's Certificate in Music Technology. In 1994 he was assistant musical director for the university's production of "The Mistress of Two Masters", a musical play by Paul Levitt about Anna Giro, mistress of Antonio Vivaldi. Brian has performed on local television in the Twin Cities area and has been a featured performer at the Scott Joplin Festival in Sedalia, Missouri, the Rocky Mountain Ragtime Festival in Boulder, Colorado, and for the Classic Ragtime Society in Indianapolis. He plays a wide variety of contemporary rags in addition to the tangos of Ernesto Nazareth and the early folk rags of Charles Hunter and Brun Campbell. In addition to 45 ragtime-based piano solos, Keenan's works include a "Piano Concertino, Magnificat" for chorus and organ, and "Three Songs on Ancient Chinese Texts" for soprano and chamber ensemble. His CD releases, comprising folk ragtime, new ragtime, and Terra Verde, include "Solo Piano" (1996, Solo Art) and "Hidden Falls" (1998, Viridiana). |