Zoe Keating

Zoë Keating is a one-woman orchestra. She uses a cello and a foot-controlled laptop to record layer upon layer of cello, creating intricate, haunting and compelling music. Increasingly considered a role model for DIY artists, Zoë’s self-released albums have sold over 35,000 copies and she has amassed an incredible 1.3 million Twitter followers.

Born in Canada and classically trained from the age of eight, Zoë spent her 20’s dabbling in computer software while moonlighting as a cellist in rock bands. Inevitably, she combined the two and developed her now signature style while improvising for late night crowds at her San Francisco warehouse. She makes an effort to reach audiences wherever they are and has performed on National Public Radio, television, webcasts, outdoors in the Nevada desert, in churches, concert halls, universities, museums, technology conferences, executive brainstorming sessions, house concerts, bars and rock clubs across North America and Europe.

Commissions include music for the San Francisco MOMA’s audio tour and soundtracks for the documentaries Ghostbird, Frozen Angels and the horror film The Devil’s Chair. She has contributed her layered cello to Mark Isham’s scores for The Secret Life of Bees, The Conspirator and Warrior, and will be featured on the score to Christopher Salmon’s adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s The Price. Zoë’s music is danced to regularly by modern dance and ballet companies around the world, and she has performed live with the Ballet de la Generalitat de Valencia and the Apex Dance Company of Denver, Colorado.

As a cellist and arranger, Zoë has worked with a wide range of artists, including Imogen Heap, Mark Isham, Curt Smith, Amanda Palmer, DJ Shadow, Rasputina, Pomplamoose, Paolo Nutini and the creators WNYC’s Radiolab.

Zoë is a recipient of a 2009 performing arts grant from the Creative Capital Foundation. Her self-released album, Into The Trees was released in June 2010 and spent 14 weeks on the Billboard classical charts.Based in Olympia, WA, You Are Plural is the unlikely marriage of wurlitzer and cello which present unending dualities: the trio’s percussive yet melodic style, the intense yet soothing rhythms, Jen Grady’s strong yet delicate voice complementing Ephriam Nagler’s sonorous yet airy one. Broad sweeping vocal harmonies weave in and out of sparse instrumentation, then suddenly they switch roles: the music swells as the haunting voices fade out. The music is palpable, almost visual and wholly sensory.