Dr. Brett M. Keating is the Music Director of Colorado Brass and has conducted the group since 2022. He has lead the group to national recognition with podium finishes at NABBA the US Masters. As a performer Brett Keating has appeared as a featured soloist with orchestra, brass bands, and wind bands in the US and Europe, including Switzerland, Italy, Germany, and the UK. His playing has been recognized at national and international competitions including: The Fischoff International & Plowman Chamber Music Competitions, Swiss National and North American Brass Band Championships. Brett has been brass banding for over fifteen years and has enjoyed the opportunity to compete in England, Switzerland, and the US while being a member of bands stateside and abroad. Most recently Brett has performed with the award-winning Fountain City Brass Band (Kansas City) and recorded with the Gramercy Brass Orchestra (New York City). Beyond performing as a soloist and with brass bands, Brett is an active chamber musician. nominal duo, an experimental project with tubist Tom Curry, merges brass performance with electro-acoustic practices through their original compositions, improvisations, adaptations, thievery, and loads of wires. nominal has performed throughout the US and in Canada, and was recently featured in the 2021 Virtual Tuba Euphonium Conference and the 2022 new music festival, Omaha Under the Radar. Their debut EP, s.i.p_1, was released in 2020. Nominalduo.wordpress.com
Currently Brett serves as Director of Bands & Brass at Western Colorado University. In this role he directs the Symphonic Band, Brass Ensemble, Jazz Ensemble, and the Athletic Band Program. He teaches applied brass lessons and courses in conducting and brass methods. Additionally, Brett is the Musical Director of the Colorado Brass Band (Gunnison, CO). Prior to his appointment at WCU, Brett was Director of Athletic Bands and professor of low brass at Carroll University. Prior to that, he served as Interim Instructor of euphonium and tuba and served on the Athletic Band Staff at the University of Kansas. Brett held simultaneous Graduate Teaching Assistantships with the wind conducting and the tuba/euphonium studios while earning his DMA in tuba/euphonium performance, an MM in wind band conducting, and a cognate in electro-acoustic composition at KU. Brett holds an MM in performance and interpretation of classical & contemporary music from the Hochschule Luzern-Musik, where he lived in beautiful Lucerne, Switzerland for three years. He earned an Artist’s Certificate in low brass performance, as well as a BA in performance from the University of Wisconsin. |