Billboard Mag story

The press gods have been smiling on me recently. I'm sure it won't last, so if you are near a magazine shop this week, pick up a copy of Billboard Magazine and you will find in there a picture of me with a wee story.

Billboard: Tweet Child O' Mine

(one detail about the story I feel the need to correct: my so-called "sales" figures. As you know, I don't have a record label and sell the majority of my CDs through my own website and at shows. Because individuals have to jump through such hoops to report sales to Soundscan, I don't. I never saw any point. Anyway, the sales figures they mention in the article can only be be digital....unless Soundscan is omnipresent and knows what people buy directly from me on Paypal. The article failed to mention that detail.)

Thank you again for coming to see me in April and selling out the Old First Church. I never believe there will be more than two people in the audience, so you really surprised me.

Since I forgot to say anything about it at the April show (doh!) just a reminder that I'll be doing it all again (sans Charles Rus, alas) at the Great American Music Hall on Thursday, June 4th. I'm opening for Amy X Neuberg and her cello chiXtet. Its an early night, the doors are at 7:30 and I play at 8pm.


Amy X Neuberg & the Cello ChiXtet
Zoe Keating

"Amy X Neuburg & The Cello ChiXtet celebrate the CD release of "The Secret Language of Subways" -- an 'avant-cabaret' song cycle for voice and 3 cellos, with live electronic percussion, looping and processing. Opening the show will be the incomparable Zoë Keating performing her one-woman orchestra of solo works for layered cello. "

Thursday, June 4th
Great American Music Hall
859 Ofarrell St
San Francisco, CA 94109

Doors 7:30, Show at 8
$15

advance tickets at: GAMHTicket

Thank you!

celloly yours,

Zoe

Wired and Woodpeckers

Hello Everyone,

The cello and I have a few things we'd like to tell you about....

WIRED INTERVIEW

A few weeks ago Dylan Tweney, the Wired "Gadget Lab" editor, and a video crew, made the windy trek up to my forest studio north of San Francisco. We talked about composition and information architecture and I played a few songs. The result was captured in these THREE videos now up on the Wired website.

Here they are


GHOST BIRD PREMIER THIS WEEK

You've heard me talk about Scott Crocker's film "Ghost Bird" that I wrote music for last year. Well, the official world premier is happening this week at the Toronto Hot Docs Festival. "Ghost Bird" will be screening Wed May 6th and Friday May 8th. I realize most of you are not in Toronto, so, for your listening pleasure, here is some of the never-before-released music that I made for the film

And, for those of you in Toronto: screening info


JUNE 4TH IN SAN FRANCISCO

And lastly, tickets are onsale for my performance on June 4th at the Great American Music Hall. I'll be sharing a bill with Amy X Neuberg and her cello chiXtet for her CD release party. So yes, a cello extravaganza!

Tickets here

Ok, sorry to be so brief.....back to work with me....(on that album I won't even talk about until its DONE)

Thank you very much!

Celloly yours,

Zoe

Australia report, SF Concerts, film news

Hello my cello friends,

Australia was amazing. I've been back for two weeks now and already I'm wondering if that really happened. Did I really go sunbathing on a perfect white beach and then swim in the Indian ocean, on the same day as a show? Did I really play four nights at the Sydney Opera House? I loved the people I met, the coffee, the light, the food. Fantastic.

Touring is wonderful, its one of my favorite things about my job, but it can be maddening when you are a "slow" traveller like myself. I like to explore every nook and cranny of a place, preferably over a period of weeks. I like to buy fish and vegetables in the local markets. I like to sit in cafes and learn bits of history or language from locals who will humor me. But on tour, especially one where I'm in a different city every day, I might have only a couple hours, if that, to absorb as much atmosphere as possible. I spend those precious hours alone, getting drunk on scenery, gorging myself on whatever local delicacies I can find. Sometimes I think I'm invisible, am I really here? Then, I race back to the venue to setup my equipment, soundcheck, and start the evening's work. All these delicious glimpses of a place make me fantasize about the adventures I will have when I come back. That list of places is now impossibly long. I've written about this before, but I really felt it keenly in Australia.

Anyway, back to the present. I have some nice bits of news to report.

First, Scott Crocker's documentary "Ghost Bird" was accepted into the Toronto HotDocs festival. I composed and recorded the soundtrack and I am very happy with the music. I would like to come out for the screening, and so I'm trying to arrange a performance in Toronto around that time. More details soon I hope. Until then, here is info about when the film will be screening:

Ghost Bird screening times

Next, I have a couple of performances coming up in San Francisco!

April 24th with organist Charles Rus.
This is a very special concert. Charles is an old friend, he's an uber talented organist and all-round amazing human being who lives and breathes music. He recently moved to Seattle, but prior to that he played organ with the San Francisco Symphony. We'll be doing a joint performance that will include my solo layered cello music, some modern and classical works for solo pipe organ (i.e. Phillip Glass and Bach), some duets and some cello plus pipe organ ambient improvisation.

Friday, April 24th
8:00 pm
Zoe Keating & Charles Rus

Old First Church
1751 Sacramento St. (at Van Ness Ave)
San Francisco, CA

Tickets are available in advance here

June 4 with Amy X Neuberg
Amy is another amazing musician I've known for a while. She is celebrating the release of a new CD with a performance with her Cello ChiXtet at the Great American Music Hall. I will be opening the show and playing the 1st half of the evening. So an all-cello, all-the-time, evening at my favorite local venue.

Thursday, June 4th
doors 7:30
show 8:00pm

Great American Music Hall
859 O'Farrell Street
San Francisco, CA 94109

Tickets are available in advance here


That's it for now! I'm looking forward to playing in San Francsico again. Its been a while.

Thank you for listening.

Celloly yours,

Zoe

Creative Capital performing arts grant

20 Jan 2009

Hello everyone.

I'm still somewhat stunned by this news...

...Jeff Rusch and I were awarded a performing arts grant by the Creative Capital Foundation! The initial grant is for $10,000 and we are eligible for up to $50,000 over the course of the project. In addition to funding for our project, which I'll tell you about in a minute, we also get to participate in Creative Capital’s Artist Services Program. The program "offers artists assistance in areas like as fundraising, networking, marketing, and strategic planning, with the goal of advancing both their projects and their careers".

Um, WOW. The application process spanned several months last year and it seemed like such a long shot that I tried not to get my hopes up too much. In fact, I had put the grant out of my mind entirely and assumed we would do our project this year without funding. So when I got the phone call, I happened to be at a restaurant at the time, and I promptly lay down on the floor in shock.

What is the project? It is to create a live synaesthetic presentation of my music. Jeff and I will be taking one step further the work we have done together in the past with our layered cello-plus-video performances in San Francisco, in Italy, and in France. The goal is to create an ideal live performance environment in which you, the audience, can experience a version of what I see in my mind's eye as I play.

I'm very grateful. The first meetings with Creative Capital are this week. The work begins!

Obviously, I'll keep you posted on all this as it develops. If all goes well we should be ready to perform in November.

2008 went out with a bang. I had a great time on tour with Amanda Palmer and the Danger Ensemble. I really love performing, and also I love to travel. Its already a blur of warm fuzzy memories. A special treat this time around was that I got to tour with my sister Laura and her pregnant belly (she is Amanda's as merch girl extraordinaire).

Now I'm also very eager to be back in my studio because being in my studio means I can WORK ON MY ALBUM, which I haven't been here to do since August. I've been tinkering away on it the last 2 weeks, hopefully productively!

Thanks very much for listening. I know these are tough times for a lot of people, but watching the inauguration today gave me so much hope.

celloly yours, Zoe

A Ballet in Valencia

It is 6am and I am wide awake here in my temporary apartment on a quiet medieval street in Valencia, Spain. It is so beautiful! Its like a stone stage set. I am still having difficulty believing I am here.

How it happened....the choreographer Asun Noales discovered my music on iTunes. She choreographed a ballet to "Updraught", "Legions (War)" and "Frozen Angels". Then she was invited to put on the ballet at the Teatro Principal here in Valencia so the music director of the theater contacted me to see if I could produce sheet music for orchestra. However, because I didn't have time to do that (because I was leaving the following day to play at MIT and then join Amanda Palmer's European tour) they asked me to come do it live.

Hmmm...let me think hard about that one...a two week trip to Valencia, Spain to perform with a ballet company in a grand theater that is a copy of La Scala in Milan...how about....FUCK YES?!

So here I am. I've stayed up nearly every night the last 4 days making the music perfect. I'm finally ready, which is good because the premier is today.

Here are the details if any of you happen to be in Spain over the next week (come on, the weather is lovely and the food here is fantastic!).


"Llebeig"

danced by the Ballet de Teatres de la Generalitat
choreography by Asun Noales

live music by Zoe Keating

Teatro Principal
Valencia, Spain

Nov 20, 21, 22 and 28 at 9pm

Nov 23, 26 and 27 at 7pm

10 to 20 Euro

tickets here: http://www.bancajaticket.es/Servientrada/janto/main.php

Celloly yours from Spain,

Zoe

Live videos from Paris

Here are two videos from my performance in Paris last week at La Boule Noire. Thank you Fanch Oriant and Alexandra Opillard for taking video! Also, these two songs are still untitled...if you have any suggestions, write to me!

My schedule for the rest of the year

Hello!

I'm writing this from Paris, where I just spent a lovely day wandering with my sister. Because we're here on tour we had no plans, which is kind of nice. We headed off in the most appealing direction and went from pastry shop to pastry shop until we found ourselves at the Louvre. Then we strolled along the Seine to Notre Dame and wound up the day in the Latin quarter. I have to say, it is days like today when I LOVE MY JOB. I think we stopped for crepes at least three times.

The concert is tomorrow at La Boule Noire in Montmartre and that's my last performance on this leg of the Who Killed Amanda Palmer Tour. Amanda and the Danger Ensemble will continue on to Belgium and the Netherlands, but I must get myself to Chicago for another live installment of Radio Lab on Oct 26 and 27. You might remember last year I performed with Radio Lab in St. Paul Minnesota for their deconstruction of War of The Worlds. They are reprising the show, for two nights, at the Victory Gardens Theater in Chicago and I am providing live music. Details below!

Then, in November I'll be in Spain working on live music for a ballet. It will run from Nov 20 to Nov 28 at the Teatro Principal in Valencia. And immediately following that, I rejoin Amanda Palmer in Toronto on Nov 30 for the rest of her North American tour which ends on Dec 16 at the Henry Fonda Theater in LA.

That's the scoop! All the dates are below...and will be on my website as soon as I have internet for more than 30 minutes!

Thank you to everyone in Europe who came to see us. I've had an amazing time. Its all still a bit of a blur, but there were so many amazing moments, and audiences. I will certainly be back.

celloly yours, Zoe

--------------------
Oct 26, Oct 27
RadioLab Live!
Chicago: Victory Gardens Theater

Victory Gardens Theater Fresh Squeezed and WNYC's Radio Lab will present Martian Invasion! Decoding the War of the Worlds, on the eve of the War of the Worlds 70th anniversary, at Victory Gardens Biograph Theater, October 26 and 27.
Radio Lab hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich will deconstruct the original broadcast of War of the Worlds and describe what was happening-sociologically and psychologically-at each step. The program will be accompanied by cellist Zoe Keating.

more info:
http://blogs.wnyc.org/radiolab/2008/10/08/get-yer-tickets-war-of-the-worlds-live-in-chicago/

--------------------
Nov 20 to Nov 28
performing live with the Ballet de Teatres de la Generalitat
Teatro Principal, Valencia, Spain

--------------------

Who Killed Amanda Palmer - North American Tour
(supporting and accompanying Amanda Palmer on all dates)

Nov 30, Toronto, Ontario: Mod Club Theatre
Dec 2, Ferndale, Michigan: Magic Bag:
Dec 3, Chicago, Illinois: Cabaret Metro
Dec 5, Minneapolis, Minnesota: First Avenue Nightclub
Dec 6, Denver, Colorado: Bluebird Theatre
Dec 7, Apsen, Colorado: Belly Up
Dec 8, Murray, Utah: Murray Theatre
Dec 10, Vancouver, BC: Richard’s On Richards Cabaret
Dec 11, Seattle, Washington: Showbox Theatre
Dec 12, Portland, Oregon: Wonder Ballroom
Dec 13, Sacramento, California: Harlow’s
Dec 15, San Francisco, California: Bimbo’s 365 Club
Dec 16, Los Angeles, California: Henry Fonda Theatre