Brian Kelly

Pianist and composer Brian Kelly crafts contemporary instrumental music distinguished by its soft textures and lyrical character. That approach first appeared on Pools of Light in 2005, received further development on the small-group album Afterplay in 2008, and continued with the solo-piano collection Butterfly Rapture in 2015.

Born in New York City in 1960, Kelly grew up in Palo Alto, California, beginning piano studies at age eight under his mother, a classical pianist. He soon began composing original pieces at home while also performing on violin with a local opera company. During his youth he participated in numerous musicals and plays, among them several productions mounted by TheatreWorks and the Palo Alto Children's Theatre. Following high school he pursued formal training in music composition with Roland Wiggins at Hampshire College and Lewis Spratlan at Amherst College, and he explored jazz improvisation under Ralph Towner and Paul McCandless. Additional instruction came from pianist Art Lande at the Naropa Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and from Andy LaVerne in New York City.

Established in the San Francisco Bay Area, Kelly issued his first album as leader, Pools of Light, in 2005; the recording received radio airplay and reached number one on the NAR Top 100 Radio Chart. Afterplay followed in 2008, featuring saxophonist Eric Crystal, guitarist James Robinson, trumpeter Ross Wilson, and additional musicians. In 2015 Kelly released Butterfly Rapture, his initial solo-piano project. A further set of solo-piano recordings, Tomorrow's Daydream, appeared in 2018 and earned silver medals for Album and Instrumental Performance, Solo at the independent Global Music Awards. He has also released individual tracks such as the 2019 collaboration "From Nowhere" with saxophonist Crystal and the 2020 solo-piano pieces "Into the Garden" and "Trees in the Mist."