ABOUT

 

       Abby Kellems is a composer, pianist, and occasional tuba player based in Boulder, Colorado.  Her work explores the images and intricacies of the natural world, and she focuses on creating musical experiences that facilitate a deeper relationship between listeners, performers, and the environment. She completed her Bachelor’s of Music in Music Composition at the University of Oregon, where she studied with David Crumb and Robert Kyr. She received the Outstanding Undergraduate Scholar Awards in the areas of Music Theory and Composition from the UO School of Music and Dance, and graduated summa cum laude. Kellems was also selected for the University of Oregon’s Humanities Undergraduate Research Fellowship. She completed a research project titled "Six Contemporary American Women Composers: Creating Music as a Means of Environmental Activism," which won the Center for Environmental Futures/Andrew W. Mellon Award. She has had works premiered by the Delgani String Quartet, ~Nois, and the Boulder Altitude Directive, and served as the Composer-in-Residence and associate conductor of the Riverside Chamber Symphony from 2021-2022.

 

       She is currently pursuing a Master's in Music in Music Composition at the University of Colorado-Boulder, where she teaches aural skills and studies with Annika Socolofsky and Michael Theodore. She is also a founding member of the Plein Air Sound Collective, an ecosystem of composers, performers, producers, and other artists with the common goal of exploring the relationship between sound and environment. The collective's inaugural project, Weathering Steel, was recorded at the Tank Center for Sonic Arts in May 2023 and will be released later this year.