Zoë Clare Keating (born February 2, 1972) is a Canadian-American cellist and composer once based in

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the most populous U.S. state and the 3rd largest by area. It is also the m ...

, now based in

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

Music career

Keating performed from 2002 to 2006 as second chair cellist in the cello rock band Rasputina. She is featured on Amanda Palmer's debut solo album, ''

Who Killed Amanda Palmer ''Who Killed Amanda Palmer'' is the first solo studio album by American singer-songwriter Amanda Palmer. The album was largely recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, with collaborator Ben Folds and was released on Roadrunner Records (also home to T ...

''. In her solo performances and recordings Keating uses live electronic sampling and repetition in order to layer the sound of her cello, creating rhythmically dense musical structures. , her self-produced album ''One Cello x 16: Natoma'' reached #1 on the iTunes classical charts four times, and "Into the Trees" spent 47 weeks on the Billboard classical chart, peaking at #7. She is the recipient of a 2009 Performing Arts Award from

Creative Capital Creative Capital is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization based in New York City that supports artists across the United States through funding, counsel, gatherings, and career development services. Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has commi ...

. Keating's songs have been featured in various commercials, TV shows, films, video games, and dance performances including CBS's Elementary, NBC's Crisis, So You Think You Can Dance, MTV's Teen Wolf, Dateline, Have You Heard from Johannesburg, The Day Carl Sandburg Died, Alice Walker: Beauty in Truth, The Retrieval, and The Witness. In January 2011, Keating won the award for Contemporary Classical Album from The 10th Annual Independent Music Awards. In July 2011, Keating was named a Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum. She performed at the closing ceremony of the forum's Annual Meeting in Davos, Switzerland in January 2014 and 2016. Cellist Zoë Keating (22934509675)

On September 1, 2013, the LA Times published an Op-Ed she authored. It discussed the positive and negative effects of her iTunes revenue on her Do-It-Yourself performing career. Keating composed the score to A&E's '' The Returned'' with

Jeff Russo Jeff Russo (born August 31) is an American composer, songwriter, guitarist, vocalist and music producer, and one of the two founding members of American rock band Tonic. He is also a founding member of acoustic rock band Low Stars. Russo is als ...

, and the pair composed music for season 2 of ''

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

'', which aired in 2016 on WGN. Keating's song "Lost" is the theme music to the podcast

On Being ''On Being'' is a podcast and a former public radio program. Hosted by Krista Tippett, it examines what it calls the "animating questions at the center of human life: What does it mean to be human, and how do we want to live?" Radio program and ...

. In 2020, Keating composed the score to ''The Edge of All We Know'', a documentary about black holes. In 2021, during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, Keating co-composed, along with longtime collaborator Jeff Russo, the score to the HBO movie ''Oslo'', a film adaptation of the Tony Award-winning play. On July 13, 2021, Keating and Russo's score for ''Oslo'' was nominated for a 2021 Emmy for Outstanding Music Composition For A Limited Or Anthology Series, Movie Or Special.

Personal life

In 1972, Keating was born in

Guelph, Ontario Guelph ( ; 2021 Canadian Census population 143,740) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. Known as "The Royal City", Guelph is roughly east of Kitchener and west of Downtown Toronto, at the intersection of Highway 6, Highway 7 and Well ...

, Canada to an English mother and an American father. She began playing the cello at the age of eight and attended Sarah Lawrence College in New York. Prior to 2005, she worked as an

information architect Information architecture (IA) is the structural design of shared information environments; the art and science of organizing and labelling websites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability; and an emerging ...

. She worked on projects at the now defunct Perspecta, Inc., and the

Research Libraries Group The Research Libraries Group (RLG) was a U.S.-based library consortium that existed from 1974 until its merger with the OCLC library consortium in 2006. RLG developed the Eureka interlibrary search engine, the RedLightGreen database of bibliograp ...

(now part of OCLC) and the

Database of Recorded American Music The Database of Recorded American Music (DRAM) is a continuously growing, online resource providing on-demand, high-quality streaming media access to nearly 9,000 essential musical works from 15 record labels, along with their liner notes, album a ...

. In March, 2010, Keating announced via her website that she was expecting her first child with her husband, Jeff Rusch, in May. Rusch was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer in May, 2014, and was admitted to the hospital for emergency treatment. Days later, Keating and Rusch received a letter denying coverage for this hospital stay by their insurance company, Anthem. After local media publicized the story, Anthem Blue Cross reversed its decision, telling Keating in a phone call that the hospital stay would be covered. Rusch died on February 19, 2015. Keating continues to advocate for patients, data portability and the simplification of medical insurance. In October 2016 she was invited to participate in a panel discussion at the Frontiers Conference with President Barack Obama, Riccardo Sabatini and Kafui Dzirasa, moderated by Atul Guwande.

Discography

Solo

*2004 - ''One Cello x 16'' (EP) *2005 - ''One Cello x 16: Natoma'' *2010 - ''Into the Trees'' *2018 - ''Snowmelt'' (EP)

Soundtracks

*2001 - '' I Am a Sex Addict'' - composer, additional music *2005 - '' Frozen Angels'' - composer, cello *2007 - '' The Devil's Chair'' - composer, cello *2008 - '' Ghost Bird'' - composer, cello *2008 - '' Not Forgotten'' - cello *2008 - '' The Secret Life of Bees'' - cello *2010 - '' Breaking Bad'' - recorded cello version of the theme by David Porter *2010 - '' (1)Doubt, (2)Nostalgia Trio, (3)Frozen Angels, (4)Coda, (5)Legions(War), (6)The Last Bird, (7)Arrival, (8)Legions(Aftermath)'' - for writing and performing in The House of Suh film credits *2010 - ''

The Conspirator ''The Conspirator'' is a 2010 American mystery historical drama film directed by Robert Redford and based on an original screenplay by James D. Solomon. It is the debut film of the American Film Company. The film tells the story of Mary Surrat ...

'' - cello *2011 - ''

Warrior A warrior is a person specializing in combat or warfare, especially within the context of a tribal or clan-based warrior culture society that recognizes a separate warrior aristocracies, class, or caste. History Warriors seem to have be ...

'' - cello *2012 - ''

Elementary (TV series) ''Elementary'' is an American procedural drama television series that presented a contemporary update of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's character Sherlock Holmes. It was created by Robert Doherty and starred Jonny Lee Miller as Sherlock Holmes and ...

'' - composer, cello *2015 - '' Felizes para Sempre?'' - composer of "Tetrishead", opening and ending theme *2015 - '' The Returned'' - composer, producer, cello, keyboards, vocals, guitar *2016 - ''

Manhattan (TV series) ''Manhattan'' (sometimes styled ''MANH(A)TTAN'') is an American drama television series based on the project of the same name that produced the first atomic weapons. While some historical figures appear in ''Manhattan'', most characters are fic ...

'' - composer, cello *2016 - ''

The Witness (2016 video game) ''The Witness'' is a 2016 puzzle video game developed and published by Thekla, Inc. Inspired by '' Myst'', the game involves the exploration of an open world island filled with natural and man-made structures. The player progresses by solving ...

'' - composer of "Escape Artist" used in the promotional video. *2017 - ''

SMILF ''SMILF'' is an American sitcom starring, created, written, and directed by Frankie Shaw. It was based on her short film of the same title. The series premiered on Showtime on November 5, 2017. The series' name, SMILF, is a play on the term " ...

'' - composer, cello *2020 - '' The Edge of All We Know'' - composer, cello, piano *2021 - ''

Oslo Oslo ( , , or ; sma, Oslove) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population ...

'' - composer, cello

Dance Works

* 2008 - '' Llebeig with the Valencia Ballet'' - composer and performer, cello * 2014 - '' Boulders and Bones with ODC Dance'' - composer and performer, cello * 2021 - '' Swing Low with Joffrey Ballet'' - composer

With Mike Gordon and Leo Kottke

*2020 -
Noon
'

With Curt Smith

* 2010 - '' All is Love''

With Pomplamoose

* 2009 - '' Always in the Season''

With Halou

* 2008 - '' Halou''

With Amanda Palmer

* 2008 - ''

'' * 2010 - ''

Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele ''Amanda Palmer Performs the Popular Hits of Radiohead on Her Magical Ukulele'' is an EP. by musician Amanda Palmer. It is composed entirely of cover versions of songs by the band Radiohead, performed by Palmer on the ukulele. It was released ...

'' * 2015 - '' Bigger on the Inside'' * 2018 - '' Big Yellow Taxi covered by Amanda Palmer, Zoe Keating, Sean Ono Lennon, John Cameron Mitchell''

With Mar

*2007 - ''The Sound''

With Rasputina

*2004 - '' Frustration Plantation'' *2005 - '' A Radical Recital''

With John Vanderslice

*2002 - '' Life and Death of an American Fourtracker''

With Tarentel

*2001 - ''The Order of Things''

With Dionysos

*1999 - ''Haiku''

References

External links

* *
An Exclusive interview with Zoe Keating at Bar Hop SessionsJad Abumrad interviews Zoe Keating
on

WNYC WNYC is the trademark and a set of call letters shared by WNYC (AM) and WNYC-FM, a pair of nonprofit, noncommercial, public radio stations located in New York City. WNYC is owned by New York Public Radio (NYPR), a nonprofit organization that ...

Radiolab ''Radiolab'' is a radio program produced by WNYC, a public radio station in New York City, and broadcast on public radio stations in the United States. The show is nationally syndicated and is available as a podcast. Live shows were first off ...

"Zoe Keating unabridged"
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Wired ''Wired'' (stylized as ''WIRED'') is a monthly American magazine, published in print and online editions, that focuses on how emerging technologies affect culture, the economy, and politics. Owned by Condé Nast, it is headquartered in San ...

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Performing 2 pieces
{{DEFAULTSORT:Keating, Zoe 1972 births Ableton Live users Canadian rock cellists Living people Musicians from Guelph Rasputina (band) members Sarah Lawrence College alumni