Zoë Keating

Composer and performer Zoë Keating has spent the last 20 years exploring the landscape of sounds a string instrument can make. She coaxes sounds out of the very edges of her cello, adeptly layering them into “swoon inducing” (San Francisco Weekly) music that is unclassifiable yet “a distinctive mix of old and new” (National Public Radio). She is known for her use of technology – which she uses to record and sample her cello onstage and in the studio – and for her DIY approach – composing, recording and producing her works without the help of a record label.

Born in Canada, Keating started playing the cello when she was eight and went on to pursue electronic music and contemporary composition as part of her Liberal Arts studies at Sarah Lawrence College. After graduation she moved to San Francisco and built a career as an information architect and data analyst while moonlighting as a cellist in rock bands. Keating eventually combined her love of music and technology, using a computer to live-layer her cello and performing for late-night parties in the San Francisco warehouse in which she lived.

Keating’s recorded works have achieved a surprising degree of popular ubiquity for a DIY artist. Her self-produced albums have several times reached #1 on the iTunes classical charts and spent many months on the Billboard classical charts. Her recordings are used as bumper music for NPR’s Morning Edition, as the theme music to OnBeing, as the thinking- music of the Sherlock Holmes character on CBS Elementary, in HBO’s hit drama White Lotus, in countless documentaries and in tens of thousands of online videos of everything from professional and amateur dance performances to rock climbing and gaming videos.

Keating also composes for TV, theater, film and dance. She co-composed, along with Jeff Russo, the score for the HBO movie “Oslo”, which earned them an Emmy Nomination in 2021 for Outstanding Music for a Television Movie. Her latest projects include scores for PBS’s 2022 series “Searching: Our Quest for Meaning in the Age of Science” and the drama “For The Love of a Woman”, by Italian director Guido Chiesa, scheduled for release in 2024.

In addition to her recordings, Keating performs to rapt audiences around the world. Each performance is unique as she spontaneously improvises around her pieces, demonstrates how she makes them and tells the stories behind them.

A vocal advocate for the rights of artists and creators, Keating writes and speaks often about copyright and the mechanics of the music industry economy. She was elected a governor of the San Francisco chapter of the Recording Academy, named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and served as a boardmember of CASH Music, a nonprofit organization that built open source digital tools for musicians and labels.

As a cellist Zoë has played with a wide range of artists, including Imogen Heap, Amanda Palmer, Guy Sigsworth, Tears for Fears, DJ Shadow, Dan Hicks, Thomas Dolby, Sean Ono Lennon, John Vanderslice, Rasputina, Pomplamoose and Paolo Nutini.

Zoë currently lives in Burlington, VT and is working on another album for release in 2024.

“…a distinctive mix of old and new — layers of sound, that feel more like orchestrations than a solo instrument. ” – National Public Radio

“Swoon-inducing. Like taking a triple-shot of Absinthe before stepping outside of the bar just in time to see the sun exploding.” -SF Weekly

“… uses live looping to transform solo performances into multipart masterpieces.” – Electronic Musician

“…sublime minimalist music with a pop sensibility” – San Francisco Weekly

Awards:

Creative Capital Foundation, 2009. Performing Arts grant
San Francisco Artsfest, 2005. Emerging artist award
Belle Foundation, 2005. Artistic development grant
World Economic Forum, 2011. Young Global Leader
Television Academy, 2021, Emmy Nomination for Outstanding Composition for a Movie (Original Dramatic Score)