Brian Keane (born January 18, 1953) is a multi Emmy and Grammy award-winning American
composer
A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music.
Etymology and Defi ...
,
music producer
A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...
, and
guitarist
A guitarist (or a guitar player) is a person who plays the guitar. Guitarists may play a variety of guitar family instruments such as classical guitars, acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and bass guitars. Some guitarists accompany themselv ...
. Keane has been described as "a musician's musician, a composer's composer, and one of the most talented producers of a generation" by ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' magazine.
Keane grew up in
Westport, Connecticut
Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, along the Long Island Sound within Connecticut's Gold Coast. It is northeast of New York City. The town had a population of 27,141 according to the 2020 U.S. Census.
History
...
, and started his career as a guitarist, eventually touring and recording in a duo with
Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell (born Lorenz Albert Van DeLinder III; April 2, 1943 – February 19, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist.
Early life
Larry Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas, United States. He never knew his biological father, a musician. He w ...
. Best known as a composer, Keane's first music score for a documentary came in 1980 with ''
Against Wind and Tide: A Cuban Odyssey'', which was nominated for an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
. As the cable television business bloomed in the 1980s, Keane quickly became one of the foremost pioneers in documentary music scoring. By the 1990s ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' respectfully called him "the
John Williams
John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932)Nylund, Rob (15 November 2022)Classic Connection review ''WBOI'' ("For the second time this year, the Fort Wayne Philharmonic honored American composer, conductor, and arranger John Williams, who wa ...
of the documentary".
Keane has worked with every major network, and many multi award-winning filmmakers including
Barry Levinson
Barry Lee Levinson (born April 6, 1942) is an American filmmaker, comedian and actor. Levinson's best-known works are mid-budget comedy drama and drama films such as '' Diner'' (1982); ''The Natural'' (1984); ''Good Morning, Vietnam'' (1987); ' ...
,
Ric Burns
Ric Burns (Eric Burns, born 1955) is an American documentary filmmaker and writer. He has written, directed and produced historical documentaries since the 1990s, beginning with his collaboration on the celebrated PBS series '' The Civil War'' (1 ...
,
Susan Lacy,
Henry Hampton
Henry Eugene Hampton Jr. (8 January 1940 – 22 November 1998) was an African-American filmmaker. His production company, Blackside, Inc., produced over 80 programs—the most recognizable being the documentary ''Eyes on the Prize,'' which won ...
,
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
, and
Thomas Lennon
Thomas Patrick Lennon (born August 9, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, director, and novelist. He plays Lieutenant Jim Dangle on the series ''Reno 911!''
Lennon is an accomplished screenwriter of several major st ...
, scoring some of the most memorable documentaries in television history such as the epic Burns history of New York in ''
New York: A Documentary Film'', the inspiring story of the 1980 Olympic hockey team in ''
Do You Believe in Miracles?'' and ''
The Battle Over Citizen Kane
''The Battle Over Citizen Kane'' is a 1996 American documentary film directed and produced by Thomas Lennon and Michael Epstein, from a screenplay by Lennon and Richard Ben Cramer, who also narrates. It chronicles the clash between Orson Welles a ...
''. Keane also pioneered a new approach to scoring sports programming with his innovative Emmy winning work for HBO and ESPN, and created the music for the groundbreaking
ABC News ''Turning Point'' in the early days of prime-time documentaries. In addition, Brian has scored the music to several feature films, his music catalog is licensed by most major entertainment companies, and his music is performed all over the world.
It was a soundtrack release of his score to the 1987 documentary ''
Süleyman the Magnificent
Suleiman I ( ota, سليمان اول, Süleyman-ı Evvel; tr, I. Süleyman; 6 November 14946 September 1566), commonly known as Suleiman the Magnificent in the West and Suleiman the Lawgiver ( ota, قانونى سلطان سليمان, á¸²Ä ...
'' that would launch Keane's career as a Grammy winning world music producer. That score revolutionized Middle Eastern music and launched the career of
Omar Faruk Tekbilek
Omer Faruk Tekbilek ( tr, Ömer Faruk Tekbilek, born 1951) is a Turkish musician and composer, who plays a wide range of wind, string, percussion and electronic instruments. He has developed a style that builds on traditional Sufi music, but inclu ...
. Keane would become a leading producer of world music in the 1980s and 1990s after that, working with artists as diverse as
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American ...
,
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably ...
,
Joanie Madden
Joanie Madden is an Irish-American flute and whistle player of Irish traditional music. She is best known as leader of the all-female group Cherish the Ladies, but has also recorded and performed with numerous other musicians, and as a solo art ...
,
Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mu ...
,
Michael Hedges
Michael Alden Hedges (December 31, 1953 – December 2, 1997) was an American acoustic guitarist and songwriter.
Early years
The son of Thayne Alden Hedges and Ruth Evelyn Hedges Ipsen, Michael Hedges was born in Sacramento, California. His l ...
,
Buckwheat Zydeco
Stanley Dural Jr. (November 14, 1947 – September 24, 2016), better known by his stage name Buckwheat Zydeco, was an American accordionist and zydeco musician. He was one of the few zydeco artists to achieve mainstream success. His music gro ...
,
Yomo Toro
VÃctor Guillermo "Yomo" Toro (26 July 1933 – 30 June 2012) was a Puerto Rican left-handed guitarist and cuatro player. Known internationally as "The King of the Cuatro," Toro recorded over 150 albums throughout a 60-year career and worked exte ...
,
Cyrus Chestnut
Cyrus Chestnut (born January 17, 1963) is an American jazz pianist, composer and producer. In 2006, Josh Tyrangiel, music critic for ''Time'', wrote: "What makes Chestnut the best jazz pianist of his generation is a willingness to abandon notes ...
,
David Darling,
John Sebastian
John Benson Sebastian (born March 17, 1944) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and harmonicist who founded the rock band The Lovin' Spoonful. He made an impromptu appearance at the Woodstock festival in 1969[Arlo Guthrie
Arlo Davy Guthrie (born July 10, 1947) is an American folk singer-songwriter. He is known for singing songs of protest against social injustice, and storytelling while performing songs, following the tradition of his father, Woody Guthrie. Gut ...]
and
The Clancy Brothers
The Clancy Brothers were an influential Irish folk music group that developed initially as a part of the American folk music revival. Most popular during the 1960s, they were famed for their Aran jumper sweaters and are widely credited with popu ...
. Keane won a
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pres ...
for his 1998 soundtrack ''
Long Journey Home: The Irish in America'' with
the Chieftains
The Chieftains are a traditional Irish folk band formed in Dublin in 1962, by Paddy Moloney, Seán Potts and Michael Tubridy. Their sound, which is almost entirely instrumental and largely built around uilleann pipes, has become synonymous wi ...
,
Van Morrison
Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards.
As a teenager in t ...
, and
Elvis Costello
Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...
, among others. He has received several other Grammy nominations as well. Brian produced more than 150 records in his career, 37 of which were ''Billboard'' Top Ten charting.
With a career spanning well over 40 years, scoring over 700 film and television shows, garnering six Academy Awards, nine
Peabody Awards
The George Foster Peabody Awards (or simply Peabody Awards or the Peabodys) program, named for the American businessman and philanthropist George Peabody, honor the most powerful, enlightening, and invigorating stories in television, radio, and ...
, and over 70
Emmy Awards
The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the calendar year, each with the ...
(18 of which won Emmys for Best Documentary or Series), as well as numerous other awards, Keane has received four Emmy Awards for music, and 20 Emmy nominations. He is the recipient of the New York Festivals TV & Film Awards Grand Award, and was inducted into the New England Music Hall of Fame in 2021.
Biography
Early life
Keane was born January 18, 1953, in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
. His mother, Winifred Keane, is an avant garde composer, and his father
George F. Keane
George F. Keane (October 7, 1929 - May 20, 2021) was an investment professional who has made contributions to the financing of United States higher education. He organized the Common Fund (now known as the Common Fund Group), a non-profit investme ...
, while being a successful business man, was also an Irish tenor. Keane's brother, Geoffrey Keane, and his sister, Sheila Keane, are both musical as well. Keane grew up in
Westport, Connecticut
Westport is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States, along the Long Island Sound within Connecticut's Gold Coast. It is northeast of New York City. The town had a population of 27,141 according to the 2020 U.S. Census.
History
...
and played his first professional job as a rock n' roll musician when he was still a sixth grader. He studied privately with the late jazz pianist and
Juilliard
The Juilliard School ( ) is a private performing arts conservatory in New York City. Established in 1905, the school trains about 850 undergraduate and graduate students in dance, drama, and music. It is widely regarded as one of the most elit ...
educator
John Mehegan
John Francis Mehegan (June 6, 1916 – April 3, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, lecturer and critic.
Early life
Mehegan was born in Hartford, Connecticut, on June 6, 1916, although he sometimes gave the year as 1920. He began playing the vi ...
, and then with Czech composer
Karel Husa
Karel Husa (August 7, 1921 – December 14, 2016) was a Czech-born classical composer and conductor, winner of the 1969 Pulitzer Prize for Music and 1993 University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition. In 1954, he emigrated to t ...
at both
Ithaca College
Ithaca College is a private college in Ithaca, New York. It was founded by William Egbert in 1892 as a conservatory of music and is set against the backdrop of the city of Ithaca (which is separate from the town), Cayuga Lake, waterfalls, and go ...
, and
Cornell
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach an ...
where he attended school.
Professional career
Guitarist
![Brian Keane And Larry Coryell](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9d/Brian_Keane_And_Larry_Coryell.jpg)
Keane began his professional career as a guitarist playing in clubs and as a sideman, and eventually became a world-renowned jazz guitarist, performing with many Jazz greats of the 1970s and 1980s, including touring worldwide and recording for several years in a guitar duo with
Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell (born Lorenz Albert Van DeLinder III; April 2, 1943 – February 19, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist.
Early life
Larry Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas, United States. He never knew his biological father, a musician. He w ...
, and eventually becoming a
Blue Note
In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical co ...
recording artist. Brian played on hundreds of records, commercials and film scores as a guitarist beginning in the 1970s and has performed or recorded as a guitarist with artists as diverse as disco singer
Vicki Sue Robinson
Vicki Sue Robinson (May 31, 1954 – April 27, 2000) was an American theatre and film actress, and singer, closely associated with the disco era of late 1970s pop music; she is most famous for her 1976 hit, "Turn the Beat Around".
Early life
Bor ...
, entertainer
Eartha Kitt
Eartha Kitt (born Eartha Mae Keith; January 17, 1927 – December 25, 2008) was an American singer and actress known for her highly distinctive singing style and her 1953 recordings of "C'est si bon" and the Christmas novelty song "Santa Ba ...
, the rock group
Wishbone Ash
Wishbone Ash are a British rock band who achieved success in the early and mid-1970s. Their popular albums included ''Wishbone Ash'' (1970), ''Pilgrimage'' (1971), '' Argus'' (1972), ''Wishbone Four'' (1973), ''There's the Rub'' (1974), and '' ...
, jazz bassist
Eddie Gómez
Edgar Gómez (born October 4, 1944) is a Puerto Rican jazz double bassist, known for his work with the Bill Evans Trio from 1966 to 1977.
Biography
Gómez moved with his family from Puerto Rico at a young age to New York, where he was raised. ...
, jazz fusion group
Spyro Gyra
Spyro Gyra is an American jazz fusion band that was formed in Buffalo, New York, in 1974. The band's music combines jazz, R&B, funk, and pop music. The band's name comes from ''Spirogyra'', a genus of green algae which founder Jay Beckenstein ...
, flamenco guitarist
Paco de LucÃa
Francisco Sánchez Gómez (21 December 194725 February 2014), known as Paco de LucÃa (;), was a Spanish virtuoso flamenco guitarist, composer, and record producer. A leading proponent of the new flamenco style, he was one of the first flame ...
, blues artist
Taj Mahal
The Taj Mahal (; ) is an Islamic ivory-white marble mausoleum on the right bank of the river Yamuna in the Indian city of Agra. It was commissioned in 1631 by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan () to house the tomb of his favourite wife, Mu ...
, cajun icon
Buckwheat Zydeco
Stanley Dural Jr. (November 14, 1947 – September 24, 2016), better known by his stage name Buckwheat Zydeco, was an American accordionist and zydeco musician. He was one of the few zydeco artists to achieve mainstream success. His music gro ...
, classical clarinetist
Richard Stoltzman
Richard Leslie Stoltzman (born July 12, 1942) is an American clarinetist. Born in Omaha, Nebraska, he spent his early years in San Francisco, California, and Cincinnati, Ohio, graduating from Woodward High School in 1960. Today, Stoltzman is part ...
, jazz saxophonist
Marion Meadows
Marion Meadows is an Americans, American soprano saxophonist and composer, mainly in smooth jazz. He was born in West Virginia and grew up mainly in Connecticut. His first album as a leader was ''For Lovers Only'' in 1990. He has had several oth ...
, folk legend
Pete Seeger
Peter Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014) was an American folk singer and social activist. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, Seeger also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of the Weavers, notably ...
, singers
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American ...
,
Bobby McFerrin
Robert Keith McFerrin Jr. (born March 11, 1950) is an American folk and jazz singer. He is known for his vocal techniques, such as singing fluidly but with quick and considerable jumps in pitch—for example, sustaining a melody while also rap ...
,
The Clancy Brothers
The Clancy Brothers were an influential Irish folk music group that developed initially as a part of the American folk music revival. Most popular during the 1960s, they were famed for their Aran jumper sweaters and are widely credited with popu ...
,
John Sebastian
John Benson Sebastian (born March 17, 1944) is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist and harmonicist who founded the rock band The Lovin' Spoonful. He made an impromptu appearance at the Woodstock festival in 1969[Norwalk, Connecticut
, image_map = Fairfield County Connecticut incorporated and unincorporated areas Norwalk highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 230px
, map_caption = Location in Fairfield County, Connecticut, Fairfield County and ...]
. In 1981, Keane scored his first documentary for them, ''
Against Wind and Tide: A Cuban Odyssey'', which was nominated for an
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
for best documentary in 1982.
That early success led to several more scoring opportunities for Keane in the 1980s, an era where few documentaries were scored with original music. Keane's prominence as a composer rose quickly, even as he continued to tour as a guitarist in a duo with
Larry Coryell
Larry Coryell (born Lorenz Albert Van DeLinder III; April 2, 1943 – February 19, 2017) was an American jazz guitarist.
Early life
Larry Coryell was born in Galveston, Texas, United States. He never knew his biological father, a musician. He w ...
, and eventually as a solo artist with the release of his first solo CD
Snowfalls
Snow comprises individual ice crystals that grow while suspended in the atmosphere—usually within clouds—and then fall, accumulating on the ground where they undergo further changes.
It consists of frozen crystalline water throughout ...
in 1986. In 1987, Keane's score to the documentary ''Suleyman the Magnificent'', was discovered by German publisher Eckart Rahn who heard the documentary on television, and decided to release a soundtrack CD of Keane's score on his Celestial Harmonies label. The record, among the first to harmonize traditional Middle Eastern music, would form the first of a series of enduring and culturally important collaborations with Middle Eastern musician
Omer Faruk Tekbilek
Omer Faruk Tekbilek ( tr, Ömer Faruk Tekbilek, born 1951) is a Turkish musician and composer, who plays a wide range of wind, string, percussion and electronic instruments. He has developed a style that builds on traditional Sufi music, but inclu ...
, and the success of that CD would eventually lead to Brian becoming a prominent producer of ethnic and New Age recordings, both for Celestial Harmonies and a variety of major record labels.
In 1989, Keane scored the music to ''
Chimps: So Like Us'', the
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
Academy Award-nominated and Emmy-winning documentary that helped introduce the public to naturalist
Jane Goodall
Dame Jane Morris Goodall (; born Valerie Jane Morris-Goodall on 3 April 1934), formerly Baroness Jane van Lawick-Goodall, is an English primatologist and anthropologist. Seen as the world's foremost expert on chimpanzees, Goodall is best know ...
. The film was made by Oscar-winning directors
Kirk Simon
Kirk Simon (July 25, 1954 – April 14, 2018) was an American filmmaker, best known for his work on various documentaries.
Career
Simon received a nomination for an Academy Award four times, winning once. Simon produced three films nominated ...
and
Karen Goodman
Karen Goodman is an American film and television director and producer, best known for her work on various documentaries. She has been nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Documentary (Short Subject) category four times for '' The Childre ...
whose New York offices happened to be in the same building, one floor down, from the acclaimed filmmaker
Ric Burns
Ric Burns (Eric Burns, born 1955) is an American documentary filmmaker and writer. He has written, directed and produced historical documentaries since the 1990s, beginning with his collaboration on the celebrated PBS series '' The Civil War'' (1 ...
. After producing the classic ''
Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
'' mini series with his brother
Ken Burns
Kenneth Lauren Burns (born July 29, 1953) is an American filmmaker known for his documentary film, documentary films and television series, many of which chronicle United States, American History of the United States, history and Culture of the ...
in the late 1980s, the highest rated television documentary series in history, Burns went on to work with Keane on the 1990 award-winning documentary ''
Coney Island
Coney Island is a peninsular neighborhood and entertainment area in the southwestern section of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. The neighborhood is bounded by Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach, Brooklyn, Manhattan Beach to its east, L ...
''. Keane has scored every one of Burns' award-winning films ever since, and their ongoing collaborations span three decades. By the end of the 1980s, Keane had already established himself as the leading pioneer in scoring documentary films with ''
The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
'' calling him "the John Williams of the documentary".
= 1990s
=
The early 1990s saw Keane's composing career rise dramatically in stature with the multiple-award-winning
General Motors' Playwright's Theatre series for
Nederlander television, which ran for four years on
A&E, the Emmy- and Columbia Dupont-winning miniseries ''The Great Depression'' and ''The War on Poverty'' for the prominent film maker
Henry Hampton
Henry Eugene Hampton Jr. (8 January 1940 – 22 November 1998) was an African-American filmmaker. His production company, Blackside, Inc., produced over 80 programs—the most recognizable being the documentary ''Eyes on the Prize,'' which won ...
, the highly influential Ric Burns documentary ''
The Donner Party'' which won a
Peabody in 1992, and the Emmy- and Peabody-winning film ''The Battle of the Bulge'', for Oscar-winning director
Thomas Lennon
Thomas Patrick Lennon (born August 9, 1970) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, director, and novelist. He plays Lieutenant Jim Dangle on the series ''Reno 911!''
Lennon is an accomplished screenwriter of several major st ...
. Keane scored many award-winning films for the
PBS
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcasting, public broadcaster and Non-commercial activity, non-commercial, Terrestrial television, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia. PBS is a publicly fu ...
history series
American Experience
''American Experience'' is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American his ...
, working with producer
Judy Crichton
Judy Crichton (November 25, 1929 – October 14, 2007 Hevesi, Dennis ''The New York Times'', October 17, 2007) was an American television news and documentary producer.
As a teenager she assisted her father with the first television coverage ...
, directors Carl Charlson, Ben Loeterman, Mark Zwonitzer and others. He also scored several award-winning specials for
National Geographic
''National Geographic'' (formerly the ''National Geographic Magazine'', sometimes branded as NAT GEO) is a popular American monthly magazine published by National Geographic Partners. Known for its photojournalism, it is one of the most widely ...
working with director
Oren Jacoby
Oren Jacoby is a director and producer of documentary films including; ''Shadowman (2017 film), Shadowman (2017),'' ''My Italian Secret: The Forgotten Heroes'' (2014), ''Lafayette: The Lost Hero''(2010), ''Constantine's Sword (film), Constantine's ...
, and again with the Simon and Goodman picture company. In addition, he was hired by
ABC News
ABC News is the news division of the American broadcast network ABC. Its flagship program is the daily evening newscast ''ABC World News Tonight, ABC World News Tonight with David Muir''; other programs include Breakfast television, morning ...
in the early 1990s to be the composer for the first prime-time, hour-long, news documentary series ''
Turning Point
A turning point, or climax, is the point of highest tension in a narrative work.
Turning Point or Turning Points may refer to:
Film
* ''The Turning Point'', a 1914 silent film starring Caroline Cooke
* ''The Turning Point'' (1920 film), an Ame ...
''. Working with producers Rudy Bednar and Betsy West, ''Turning Point'' would become the first of several news documentary series he scored for ABC News in the 1990s, and the musical approach developed for ABC News has been adopted in many subsequent news documentary series. Because of demand, Keane began hiring orchestrators, many of whom would go on to become successful in their own right like
Michael Bacon, Richard Fiocca,
Don Grady
Don Louis Agrati (June 8, 1944 – June 27, 2012), also known as Don Grady, was an American actor, composer, and musician. He was known foremost as one of the Mickey Mouse Mouseketeers and as Robbie Douglas on the long-running ABC CBS tele ...
, Michael Terry and others.
![Brian Keane Blue Note Records](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Brian_Keane_Blue_Note_Records.jpg)
Keane's prominence as a
record producer
A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure.Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...
was also rising with the release of the critically acclaimed and commercially successful early 1990s albums: ''Tibetan Bells: The Empty Mirror'' for Celestial, ''Firedance'', and ''Beyond the Sky'' with Omar Faruk Tekbilek, John Boswell's ''Festival of the Heart'', ''Celtic Twilight'' for
Hearts of Space
''Hearts of Space'' is an American weekly syndicated public radio show featuring music of a contemplative nature"When you listen to space and ambient music you are connecting with a tradition of contemplative sound experience whose roots are an ...
, and ''Song of the Irish Whistle'' featuring Irish whistler
Joanie Madden
Joanie Madden is an Irish-American flute and whistle player of Irish traditional music. She is best known as leader of the all-female group Cherish the Ladies, but has also recorded and performed with numerous other musicians, and as a solo art ...
among others. In 1992, Keane produced the Grammy nominated comedy album ''You're Good Enough, You're Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like You'' featuring the comic, turned United States senator,
Al Franken
Alan Stuart Franken (born May 21, 1951) is an American comedian, politician, media personality, and author who served as a United States senator from Minnesota from 2009 to 2018. He gained fame as a writer and performer on the television comed ...
. Also in 1992, following the success of Keane's production of jazz saxophonist
Nelson Rangell
Nelson Rangell (born March 26, 1960) is an American smooth jazz musician and composer from Castle Rock, Colorado. Although he is known for his work with the tenor, alto, and soprano saxophone, his primary instrument is the piccolo, which he beg ...
's CD for
GRP Records
GRP® Records (Grusin-Rosen Productions) is a jazz record label founded by Dave Grusin and Larry Rosen (producer), Larry Rosen in 1978. Distributed by Verve Records, GRP® was originally known for its digital recordings that focuses on its jazz ...
, working with executive producers Dave Wilkes and Danny Weiss, he was signed by the music executive
Bruce Lundvall
Bruce Lundvall (September 13, 1935 – May 19, 2015) was an American record company executive, best known for his period as the President and CEO of the Blue Note Label Group, reporting directly to Eric Nicoli, the Chief Executive Officer of EMI ...
, and became a
Blue Note recording artist with his debut release of "Common Planet". However, despite the successful debut of "Common Planet", Brian resigned from his career as a recording artist. By that point, he was the father of young children and already in demand as a record producer and composer. He would let go of his career as a touring guitarist from that point on, but continue to record as a guitarist on records and soundtracks.
By the mid-1990s Keane was firmly established as a leading composer in documentary film, and a prominent producer of ethnic and
new-age music
New-age is a genre of music intended to create artistic inspiration, relaxation technique, relaxation, and optimism. It is used by listeners for yoga, massage, meditation, and reading as a method of stress management to bring about a state of ecs ...
simultaneously. The later 1990s brought Keane widespread success as a record producer with over three dozen ''
Billboard
A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...
'' charting albums for
Windham Hill Records
Windham Hill Records was an independent record label that specialized in instrumental acoustic music. It was founded by guitarist William Ackerman and Anne Robinson (née McGilvray) in 1976 and was popular in the 1980s and 1990s.
The label was ...
,
RCA
The RCA Corporation was a major American electronics company, which was founded as the Radio Corporation of America in 1919. It was initially a patent trust owned by General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, AT&T Corporation and United Fruit Comp ...
,
Sony
, commonly stylized as SONY, is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. As a major technology company, it operates as one of the world's largest manufacturers of consumer and professional ...
,
Hearts of Space
''Hearts of Space'' is an American weekly syndicated public radio show featuring music of a contemplative nature"When you listen to space and ambient music you are connecting with a tradition of contemplative sound experience whose roots are an ...
, and other record labels. Keane produced several successful Windham Hill records including the ''Billboard'' chart topping CDs ''Carols of Christmas'', ''Thanksgiving'', and several CDs in the hugely popular ''Winter Solstice'' and ''Summer Solstice'' series. Keane also signed Sean Harkness (a former guitar student) to a deal with Windham Hill and produced several critically acclaimed ethnic records including: ''Via Jo'' and ''Afrika Wassa'' for Senegalese artist Vieux Diop, and ''Este Es Mi Mariachi'' featuring
Linda Ronstadt
Linda Maria Ronstadt (born July 15, 1946) is a retired American singer who performed and recorded in diverse genres including rock, country, light opera, the Great American Songbook, and Latin. She has earned 11 Grammy Awards, three American ...
and Mariachi Cobre. In addition, he became well established in producing prominent Irish artists including several RCA records for the female Irish traditional group
Cherish The Ladies
Cherish the Ladies is an American female supergroup (music), super group that plays Celtic music. The band began as a concert series in New York in January 1985. It was the brainchild of Mick Moloney who wanted to showcase the brightest female ...
,
Riverdance
''Riverdance'' is a theatrical show that consists mainly of traditional Irish music and dance. With a score composed by Bill Whelan, it originated as an interval act during the Eurovision Song Contest 1994, featuring Irish dancing champions Jean ...
fiddling sensation
Eileen Ivers
Eileen Ivers (born July 13, 1965) is an American fiddler.
Ivers was born in New York City of Irish-born parents, grew up in the Bronx and attended St. Barnabas High School. She spent summers in Ireland and took up the fiddle at the age of ni ...
, and others. In 1998, Brian collaborated with
Chieftains founder
Paddy Moloney
Paddy Moloney ( ga, Pádraig Ó Maoldomhnaigh; 1 August 1938 – 12 October 2021) was an Irish musician, composer, and record producer. He co-founded and led the Irish musical group the Chieftains, playing on all of their 44 albums. He was parti ...
composing and producing the music for the
Disney
The Walt Disney Company, commonly known as Disney (), is an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate headquartered at the Walt Disney Studios complex in Burbank, California. Disney was originally founded on October ...
and PBS joint production ''Long Journey Home: The Irish in America''. The RCA soundtrack, featuring the Chieftains,
Van Morrison
Sir George Ivan Morrison (born 31 August 1945), known professionally as Van Morrison, is a Northern Irish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist whose recording career spans seven decades. He has won two Grammy Awards.
As a teenager in t ...
,
Elvis Costello
Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...
, and others, won the
Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album
The Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album was awarded from 1987 to 2011. Until 1993 the award was known as the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Recording.
An award for Best Contemporary Folk Album was also presented. Prior to 1987 ...
in 1999.
![Brian Keane, Walter Cronkite and Jim Mckay](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Brian_Keane%2C_Walter_Cronkite_and_Jim_Mckay.jpg)
In 1997, Keane started working with Hollywood agent Bruce Teitell, and scored several feature films including
''The Vernon Johns Story: Road to Freedom'' with
James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is an American actor. He has been described as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile" actors for his performances in film, television, and theater, and "one of the greatest actors in America ...
;
Stephen King
Stephen Edwin King (born September 21, 1947) is an American author of horror, supernatural fiction, suspense, crime, science-fiction, and fantasy novels. Described as the "King of Horror", a play on his surname and a reference to his high s ...
's ''
The Night Flier
"The Night Flier" is a horror short story by American writer Stephen King, first published in the 1988 anthology '' Prime Evil: New Stories by the Masters of Modern Horror'', and then in King's own 1993 ''Nightmares & Dreamscapes'' collection.
...
'' for
New Line Cinema
New Line Cinema is an American film production studio owned by Warner Bros. Discovery and is a film label of Warner Bros. It was founded in 1967 by Robert Shaye as an independent film distribution company; later becoming a film studio after acq ...
, and ''
Illtown
'' Illtown'' is a 1998 film directed by Nick Gomez. It was the first screen appearance of Oscar Isaac.
Plot
Dante and his girlfriend Micky run a very profitable drug operation in a seaside town, aided and abetted by a host of teens who sell the s ...
'' for director
Nick Gomez
Nick Gomez (born April 13, 1963) is an American film director and writer. He has directed for a number of television and film. His first feature-length film was the 1992 movie ''Laws of Gravity'', which won awards at both the Berlin Internatio ...
. He continued scoring documentaries as well, with the award-winning Burns mini series and
Shanachie double CD soundtrack ''The Way West'', Thomas Lennon's Oscar-nominated and Peabody Award-winning ''
The Battle Over Citizen Kane
''The Battle Over Citizen Kane'' is a 1996 American documentary film directed and produced by Thomas Lennon and Michael Epstein, from a screenplay by Lennon and Richard Ben Cramer, who also narrates. It chronicles the clash between Orson Welles a ...
'', the award-winning
PBS Nova
''Nova'' (stylized as ''NOVΛ'') is an American popular science television program produced by WGBH in Boston, Massachusetts, since 1974. It is broadcast on PBS in the United States, and in more than 100 other countries. The program has won man ...
series ''A Science Odyssey'', and more award-winning American Experience documentaries for its new executive producer Margaret Drain.
American Experience
''American Experience'' is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American his ...
won Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Non-Fiction Series in both 1998 and 1999. Also in 1999, Brian scored the multiple Emmy-winning Ric Burns series ''
New York: A Documentary Film'' which, after the World Trade Center attack of September 11, 2001, became among the biggest selling documentary series of its time.
![Brian Keane with Director Ric Burns](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bb/Brian_Keane_with_Director_Ric_Burns.jpg)
In 1996, Keane was asked to score ''Spirit of the Games'', a documentary on the
Olympics
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a var ...
by Emmy-winning director
George Roy
George Roy is an American sports documentary director, producer, and editor. Among his twenty two films for HBO are ''Mantle'',''When it was a Game'', ''Curse of the Bambino'', ''Broad Street Bullies, Babe Ruth'', ''Fists of Freedom'', ''Hitler ...
for
HBO Sports
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
. It began a long relationship with HBO Sports and a very successful run of sports documentaries including the Peabody-winning films ''Babe Ruth'', ''Ali Frazier: One Nation Divisible'', ''Dare to Compete'' and ''Fists of Freedom'', which were part of a new series of documentaries entitled ''Sports of the 20th Century''. Keane also scored HBO's ''
Inside the NFL
''Inside the NFL'' is an American weekly television sports show that focuses on the National Football League (NFL). It originally aired on HBO from 1977 through 2008. Following Super Bowl XLII, HBO announced that it would be dropping the program ...
'' during that period.
= 2000s
=
By the year 2000,
Napster
Napster was a peer-to-peer file sharing application. It originally launched on June 1, 1999, with an emphasis on digital audio file distribution. Audio songs shared on the service were typically encoded in the MP3 format. It was founded by Shawn ...
and other downloading entities were beginning to take over record distribution, and several long established record companies went out of business. In the space of just a year, the record producing business that Keane had enjoyed and accumulated over the previous decade and a half collapsed, along with most record companies. He was still among the most widely recognized composers for documentary film however, and by then, he had extended his notoriety to become a leading composer in the world of sports. In addition to continuing to score Emmy-winning documentaries like Ric Burns'
''Ansel Adams'', Bill Moyers' ''Becoming American: The Chinese Experience'' collaborating with Chinese musician
George Gao, and several more award-winning
American Experience
''American Experience'' is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The program airs documentaries, many of which have won awards, about important or interesting events and people in American his ...
episodes for its new executive producer Mark Samels, Keane composed the music to many classic Emmy- and Peabody-winning HBO sports documentaries in the early 2000s. These included ''Do You Believe in Miracles'', ''Legendary Nights'', ''Picture Perfect'', ''
The Curse of the Bambino'' and ''Nine Innings From Ground Zero''. He worked with producer
Ross Greenburg
Ross Greenburg (born c. 1955) was president of HBO Sports from 2000 to 2011.
He was an executive producer for HBO Sports in 1985. During his tenure he won 51 Sports Emmys and 8 Peabody Awards. He succeeded Seth Abraham as president.
HBO Sports i ...
, directors George Roy, Joe Lavine, and other Emmy-winning sports documentarians, and composed a number of Emmy-nominated and Peabody-winning films for
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
as well such as ''Kentucky Bluegrass Basketball'', ''The Complete Angler'', ''You Write Better Than You Play'', and
David Halberstam
David Halberstam (April 10, 1934 April 23, 2007) was an American writer, journalist, and historian, known for his work on the Vietnam War, politics, history, the Civil Rights Movement, business, media, American culture, Korean War, and later ...
's ''Teammates'' for directors Fritz Mitchell, Johnson McKelvey,
Neil Leifer
Neil Leifer (born December 28, 1942) is an American sports photographer and filmmaker known mainly for his work in the Time Inc. family of magazines.
Early life and education
Neil Leifer grew up on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York ...
, and others. Brian also scored several documentary specials for
CBS Sports
CBS Sports is the sports division of the American television network CBS. Its headquarters are in the CBS Building on W 52nd Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, with programs produced out of Studio 43 at the CBS Broadcast Center on W 5 ...
including
''Pistol Pete'', for which he won a music Emmy for his collaborative score with Cajun musician
Buckwheat Zydeco
Stanley Dural Jr. (November 14, 1947 – September 24, 2016), better known by his stage name Buckwheat Zydeco, was an American accordionist and zydeco musician. He was one of the few zydeco artists to achieve mainstream success. His music gro ...
.
![Brian Keane and son at Emmy Awards](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/68/Brian_Keane_and_son_at_Emmy_Awards.jpg)
In 2001, Keane became the first, and only composer in the history of the Emmys, to sweep all the Emmy nominations for music composition in a single year,
and he won Emmys in 2002, 2003, and 2004 for music composition as well. In 2005, he had three more Emmy nominations for music composition, and scored all five Emmy nominated films for best sports documentary that year, including the best documentary Emmy-winning ''Rhythm in the Rope'' for
ESPN
ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...
. In 2006, Keane scored Thomas Lennon and
Ruby Yang
A ruby is a pinkish red to blood-red colored gemstone, a variety of the mineral corundum ( aluminium oxide). Ruby is one of the most popular traditional jewelry gems and is very durable. Other varieties of gem-quality corundum are called sap ...
's ''
The Blood of Yingzhou District'', which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary: Short Subject. In addition, he scored the Emmy- and Peabody-winning Ric Burns' films ''
Andy Warhol
Andy Warhol (; born Andrew Warhola Jr.; August 6, 1928 – February 22, 1987) was an American visual artist, film director, and producer who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art. His works explore the relationsh ...
'' for American Masters and ''Eugene O'Neil'' for American Experience. In 2007, Brian received Emmy nominations for his scores to HBO's ''Barbaro'', ''Mickey Mantle'' and Johnson McKelvey's ''Kabul Girls Club''. In addition, Keane's compositions were being used in several major feature films, and being adapted for symphony orchestras throughout the world, including the
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is a British symphony orchestra based in London. Founded in 1904, the LSO is the oldest of London's orchestras, symphony orchestras. The LSO was created by a group of players who left Henry Wood's Queen's ...
, The
Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra The Istanbul State Symphony Orchestra ( tr, İstanbul Devlet Senfoni Orkestrası or İDSO) is a Turkish symphony orchestra based in Istanbul.
Founded in 1945 as the Istanbul Municipality City Orchestra, its first principal conductor was Cemal ReÅŸ ...
, The
Boston Pops Orchestra
The Boston Pops Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Boston, Massachusetts, specializing in light classical and popular music. The orchestra's current music director is Keith Lockhart.
Founded in 1885 as an offshoot of the Boston Symp ...
, and the
Colorado Symphony Orchestra
The Colorado Symphony is an American symphony orchestra located in Denver, Colorado. Established in 1989 as the successor to the Denver Symphony Orchestra, the Colorado Symphony performs in Boettcher Concert Hall, located in the Denver Performing ...
.
Keane enjoyed a nonstop series of successes in the entertainment business for over two decades, but by 2008, the era of reality TV, digital media, and multi channel cable television was coming of age. The high end documentary was falling out of favor due to the expense of making them. A
2007 writer's strike crippled the film and television industry, budgets for live musicians were becoming a thing of the past, and the abundance of new cable channels meant smaller budgets and lower standards. Emmy judging was no longer monitored and, although he continued to score Emmy nominated films like Ric Burns'
''Into the Deep'' for American Experience, HBO's ''Joe Louis: A Hero Betrayed'', and ''The Running Rebels of UNLV'', as well as the 2011 Academy Award nominated documentary
''The Warrior of Quigang'', Keane decided to work less.
= 2010s
=
In 2012, after scoring ''
Death and the Civil War
''Death and the Civil War'' is a 2012 documentary film by Ric Burns. It was aired as an episode of American Experience
''American Experience'' is a television program airing on the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) in the United States. The pro ...
'', which won the Erik Barnauw Award and received an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Non-Fiction Program, Keane got a call from Oscar-winning director
Barry Levinson
Barry Lee Levinson (born April 6, 1942) is an American filmmaker, comedian and actor. Levinson's best-known works are mid-budget comedy drama and drama films such as '' Diner'' (1982); ''The Natural'' (1984); ''Good Morning, Vietnam'' (1987); ' ...
to score the
BBC America
BBC America is an American basic cable network that is jointly owned by BBC Studios and AMC Networks. The channel primarily airs sci-fi and action series and films, as well as selected programs from the BBC (such as its nature documentary ser ...
television series ''
Copper
Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...
'' about an Irish policeman, set in 1864 New York.
The Levinson
Fontana
Fontana may refer to:
Places
Italy
*Fontana Liri, comune in the Province of Frosinone
*Fontanafredda, comune in the Province of Pordenone
*Fontanarosa, comune in the Province of Avellino
*Francavilla Fontana, comune in the Province of Brindisi
* ...
produced series debuted as the highest rated series in the history of BBC America, and garnered Keane another Primetime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Main Title Music. ''Copper'' was renewed for a second season in 2013,
[ with the soundtrack, '' Copper: Original Soundtrack'', released via ]Valley Entertainment
Valley Entertainment is an American independent record label and music distributor based in New York City, United States. The company was founded in 1994 by Barney Cohen and Jon Birge. In 2001, it acquired the prestigious back catalogue of space, ...
.
Beginning in 2014, Keane returned to a "semi-retired" schedule. He launched his music library ''ScoreToPicture.com'' which was leased to several networks and movie studios. He continued scoring more Emmy award-winning shows for ESPN, including Fritz Mitchell's ''It's Time'', which garnered Keane his 20th Emmy nomination for music, and worked on several other projects including the unusual festival film ''Enquiring Minds'' about the history of the ''National Enquirer'', a commission to compose music for the 75th anniversary of the American Ballet Theatre
American Ballet Theatre (ABT) is a classical ballet company based in New York City. Founded in 1939 by Lucia Chase and Richard Pleasant, it is recognized as one of the world's leading classical ballet companies. Through 2019, it had an annual ei ...
, the joint BBC and PBS special of ''The Pilgrims'', a world music symphony commission resulting in finishing his first symphony ''A Speck of Time'' (which was actually mostly written in 1984). He also produced an early music soundtrack to the 1922 Douglas Fairbanks Sr. silent film of ''Robin Hood'', and composed the score to an important film about racism and American history called '' The Chinese Exclusion Act''. In 2018 Keane returned to sports with the 12-hour series ''Saturdays in the South'' for ESPN, which won two New York Festival Gold awards. In 2019, he scored a debut feature documentary for the new Disney+ streaming service called ''One Day At Disney'', and ''Very Ralph'', a documentary biopic about Ralph Lauren
Ralph Lauren, ( ; ; born October 14, 1939) is an American fashion designer, philanthropist, and billionaire businessman, best known for the Ralph Lauren Corporation, a global multibillion-dollar enterprise. He has become well known for his co ...
, which won the New York Festival's Grand Award for its music score. Also in 2019, Brian scored the music to '' Oliver Sacks: His Own Life'', which debuted to sellout crowds at the Telluride and New York Film Festivals in 2019, was the Audience Favorite Award-winner at the Hampton Film Festival and the Sarasota Film Festival, and went on to earn a "100% Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes from both audiences and critics alike.
Keane also returned to performing on guitar occasionally in 2017 following the death of his one time duo partner Larry Coryell, playing numerous tribute concerts at first, and eventually playing a wide variety of concerts, selling out Carnegie Hall in April 2018 with Omar Faruk Tekbilek, and touring internationally again, after almost 35 years, in 2019.
=2020s
=
In 2020, Keane helped make a film about his long-time friend and accomplished guitarist Charlie Karp
Charles Karp (April 13, 1953 – March 10, 2019) was an American musician and Emmy Award-winning documentarian. A former student at Coleytown Middle School and Staples High School, both in Westport, Connecticut, he left school as a senior to pursu ...
. The documentary features a concert he produced in Charlie's honor, and is called ''Charlie and Us: The Charlie Karp Story''. Keane also scored a critically hailed two-hour PBS special documentary by film maker Gretchen Sorin, working with Ric Burns, called ''Driving While Black''. The film aired about the same time that ''Oliver Sacks: His Own Life'' was released, due to the Coronavirus delay, and both soundtracks were released by Valley Entertainment. In 2021, Brian was inducted into th
New England Music Hall of Fame
In the same year, he scored a 3-hour documentary, ''Dante Alighieri and his Divine Comedy'', for Italian broadcast, produced by Steeplechase Films.
In addition to performing some concerts, Keane continues to work on composing music with his long time engineer Jeff Frez-Albrecht, helping out promising musicians with their music, and occasionally making appearances as a guest lecturer for universities and film festivals. Many of Brian's former employees, interns, and students have gone on to substantial careers of their own.
Personal life
Keane's studio is located in his first home in Monroe, CT which he bought in 1985, and converted into a recording studio in 1993. He married Susan St. Louis in 1987, who had a son, Chris Laskowski, born in 1971. They had their first son, Wylder, in 1987 and a second son, Dylan, in 1988. They lived at first in the studio they called "Little Big Feet Studios", after which the family moved to Newtown in 1994. Following his divorce in 2010, Keane commuted to the studio from Newtown for 15 years but eventually moved back in 2009. He has shared his home with actress, theatre producer and former high school classmate Bonnie Housner Erickson since 2015. Although he toured throughout the world in his early career as a guitarist, most of Keane's composing career has taken place at his studio in the woods of Connecticut, near friends that he has known for over sixty years in some cases. In an era where most television and film production took place in New York or Los Angeles, he was able to develop his substantial career simply through the notoriety and emotional power of his music.
Award-winning / nominated films scored By Brian Keane
Emmy Awards (composer)
Grammy Awards (music producer)
Soundtrack releases
Select discography (music producer)
References
External links
*
*
AllMusic
PBS.org
Amazon
"Composer Brian Keane Scores Three Sports Emmy Nominations"
''Mix
Mix, mixes or mixing may refer to:
Persons & places
* Mix (surname)
** Tom Mix (1880-1940), American film star
* nickname of Mix Diskerud (born Mikkel, 1990), Norwegian-American soccer player
* Mix camp, an informal settlement in Namibia
* Mix ...
''. April 12, 2002.
Client Feature: Brian Keane Talks Innovation, Persistence, and Entrepreneurship in Multimedia Scoring: SourceAudio
*Loria, Keith (July 20, 2021)
''Connecticut Magazine
''Connecticut Magazine'' is an American monthly magazine covering the life, culture, politics, and style of the state of Connecticut. Founded in 1971, it was purchased in 2017 by the Hearst Corporation. It is a sister magazine of ''Connecticut Br ...
''.
Brian Keane: "Driving While Black": laptrinhx.com
*Steinberg, Jessica (November 20, 2019)
"Oud Festival musicians reunite on Jerusalem stage"
''The Times of Israel
''The Times of Israel'' is an Israeli multi-language online newspaper that was launched in 2012. It was co-founded by Israeli journalist David Horovitz, who is also the founding editor, and American billionaire investor Seth Klarman. ''.
*Dekel, Ayelet (November 24, 2019)
"Omar Faruk Tekbilek with Brian Keane – Nazareth Concert"
''Midnight East''.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keane, Brian
American television composers
American film score composers
Living people
1953 births
People from Newtown, Connecticut
People from Monroe, Connecticut