Nigel Keay was born in Palmerston North, New Zealand in 1955. He has been a freelance musician since 1983 working as a composer, violist, and violin teacher. Nigel Keay has held the following composer residencies: Mozart Fellow, University of Otago 1986 and 1987, Nelson School of Music 1988 and 89, Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra 1995.
Between 1983 and 1995 he received several grants from the Arts Council of New Zealand for various commissions, one of them being a one-act opera At the Hawk’s Well. His music, which ranges from solo and chamber music combinations to full symphony orchestra, has sometimes been driven by literary and philosophical ideas. Throughout his career he has wherever possible played in or directed his own works. He became an Associate-Violist with the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra in 1994.
Nigel Keay moved to France in 1998 and lives now in Paris where he continues to work as a freelance composer/violist. In 2002 he was commissioned by Radio France to compose a work for multiple broadcasts on its France Musiques and France Culture stations (Tango Suite). Since 2003 he has given multiple performances of his String Quartet No.2 in Paris and Bavaria with his own group, Quatuor Aphanès.
Very recently Nigel Keay has been involved in the setting up of a new string orchestra in Paris, Orchestre à cordes Idoménée, where he participates as a violist. This group included Nigel Keay's Serenade for Strings in its first programme.
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