Photo Credit: Rob Penner
Hailed by the New York Times for her “magnificently sweet tone”, Keve Wilson has captivated audiences with her imaginative programming and electric personality. Her 2011 CD Pure Imagination was released on CCR/Naxos and resulted in a two year contract with Baird Artists Management. A past winner of Concert Artists Guild with her quintet, Meliora Winds, Keve is solo oboist with Kristjan Jarvi’s Absolute Ensemble and can be heard on the group’s numerous albums, including the Grammy nominated Absolute Mix. With the Absolute Ensemble, she has traveled to Estonia, Germany, Austria, New Zealand, Greece, London, Finland, and Amsterdam at the world class Concertgebouw. In 2012, the Absolute Ensemble is scheduled to perform in Dubai and Paris.
In New York in 2011, Keve performed with Jazz at Lincoln Center as part of the re-creation of Bird with Strings as solo oboist, subbed in the pit of the successful Broadway run of South Pacific, and performed as a member of the Wind Soloists of New York on a West Coast Tour. Invited to the Newport Jazz Festival in August as a member of Miquel Zenon’s dectet, she also recorded on his CD Alma Adentro, which has been nominated “Best Large Ensemble” for a Grammy in 2012. Keve also performed as principal oboe and english horn with Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas in New York and Mexico and recorded on the Sony released CD, Travieso Carmisí. Keve premiered After Hearing Bach for oboe and strings by Peter Schickele, won a coveted position in 2003 with Opera Pacific, and co-founded the innovative chamber music series Project Accidental while living in Los Angeles for six years. A fellow at the Tanglewood Institute, she has performed at many summer festivals, including Chamber Music Northwest, Bremen MusicFest, Savannah Onstage, Juneau Jazz and Classics, and New Zealand International Arts Festival. Keve has toured extensively with Meliora Winds and Quintet of the Americas, and taught master-classes at Manhattan School of Music, Eastman School of Music, University of Wisconsin at Whitewater, New York University, University of Southern Utah, and the Chautauqua Institute. Equally at home improvising along singers, Keve has performed with Ian Anderson of Jethro Tull, Rita Coolidge, Joe Zawinul, Frank Sinatra, Jr., and on numerous albums for singer/songwriters. Radio appearances include NPR’s Performance Today, WQXR, and A Couple of Musicians, a weekly radio show she and her husband hosted and produced on Mountain Public Radio.
A former dancer, Keve spent six months touring Europe as a dancer in Bernstein’s “On the Town” and understudied the role of Hildy. She also performed in Flying Ship Productions, a children’s theater based in upstate New York in the early 1990’s.
Currently on the faculty at Diller-Quaile and the 92nd Street Y, other prestigious organizations she has taught for include the Pasadena Conservatory, the Heart of Los Angeles Foundation (HOLA), the Henry Mancini Institute, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, Caramoor Center, the Chamber Music Conference, and the American Festival for the Arts in Houston and Argentina. She has also performed in hundreds of public schools across New York City and Los Angeles.
Originally from Hyde Park, New York, Keve graduated from the Eastman School of Music, where she studied oboe with Richard Killmer, piano with Patricia Arden, and dance with Elizabeth Clark. She currently resides in her favorite city of New York with her husband and two Portuguese water dogs. Keve is represented by Baird Artists Management. www.bairdartists.com