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Patrick Kelly (b. 2/17/54) - I have been
deeply involved in music since the age
of 14. I was initially exposed to the
piano as child while listening to my
mother playing “St. Louis Blues”, “It Had To Be You” and other popular,
semi-classical and novelty pieces. (She
had aspired as a child to play piano for
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the silent movies). I heard Roman Catholic liturgical music at daily Mass (pre-and
post- Vatican II), tuned and played my brother’s ukelele, and watched with interest
as Leonard Bernstein discussed the music of Karlheinz Stockhausen on PBS specials.
I requested trumpet lessons at age 11 and was self-taught on piano beginning at
age 14, finding that I could pick out melodies and harmonies easily. A profound
musical awakening occured while on an afternoon walk in which I understood and
internalized the configuration of musical intervals. I was compelled to explore the
music of Frank Zappa, Charles Mingus, Gil Evans, Duke Ellington, John
Coltrane, Eric Dolphy, McCoy Tyner, Chick Corea, Sun Ra and others. My first
formal piano lessons occured at age 18 in the Preparatory Department of the University of Cincinnati College- Conservatory of Music (CCM). During this same
time period I began to be active playing jazz and I benefited greatly from playing
with great musicians like Jimmy McGary and Cal Collins. I matriculated at CCM at
age 25, pursuing studies in composition with Joel Hoffman and Allen Sapp and
piano studies with Charles Clevenger, Eugene Flemm, and Margaret McNamara.
There I studied the music of Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Debussy,
Schoenberg and other 20th century composers. I was awarded the Bertha
Langhorst Werner Scholarship in composition and earned a Bachelor of Music
Degree in Composition in 1984. I have played rock, jazz, R&B, funk and Latin, and
big band music professionally and have composed in those mediums as well as
electronic, aleatoric and avant-garde forms.
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