EP 48: Keyna Wilkins on Being a"Musician with Attitude (MwA)" - a podcast by Musicians For Musicians, MFM
from 2023-03-24T13:00
"I think Live Music Will Always be Very Exciting and There Will Always Be a Market For It."
Our guest for this episode of MFM Speaks Out is Keyna Wilkins. Wilkins holds a Master of Music Composition at Sydney Conservatorium, studied composition, classical and jazz piano, and classical flute with several prestigious instructors, and intuitive conceptual improvisation with Tibetan Buddhist musician Tenzin Cheogyal. holds an MA in Flute Performance at Bristol University (UK) in 2008.She is known as a soloist and leader of cutting edge ensembles, and has written over 60 compositions, including 4 major orchestral works. Her works have been commissioned and/or performed by ensembles such as The Metropolitan Orchestra, Syzygy Ensemble, Elysian Fields, The Sydney Bach Society, and many others. She has released 9 albums of original music on all streaming platforms including 4 solo albums. Wilkins is also an Associate Artist with the Australian Music Centre and has five tunes in the Australian Jazz Realbook. She also writes music for films and theatre including short film Remote Access which won Best Short Film at the Imagine This International Film Festival in New York 2019 and her works are featured on ABC, Triple J, Fine Music FM, Cambridge Radio, SOAS London and many more. Her music is published by Wirripeng and she is a member of Musicians for Musicians.
Topics discussed:
Wilkin's beginnings with the European classical tradition and her interest in the piano and flute, her interest in jazz, the influence indigenous Australian culture has on her music, details from her albums, including her modal jazz improvisations on the music of J. S. Bach on So What Bach, her use of natural sounds in several of her recordings, her collaboration and other projects, her work as a music educator, the effects the pandemic had on the Australian music scene, her methods of music distribution, funding for the arts in Australia, her upcoming US tour, her decision to join MFM and her association with music activism in Australia, and her views on the future of the music scene in Australia.
Music featured in this episode:
1) Air in Motion 6, Floating in Space
2) Bach Reflections 2, Little Prelude in D Minor
3) Set Me Free (music collaboration album with Ahwaz Arab (Iran) refugee poet Jalal Mahamede, made via zoom)
(All music by Keyna Wilkins. Used with permission)
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