Photo: Greyzone

SHORT BIO/INTRO

Kelly Moran is a classically trained composer and musician based in New York. While she has composed for many instruments and performed in several avant-rock groups and experimental ensembles, she has received the most attention for her solo albums that combine experimental piano arrangements with ambient electronics. Following the surprise critical success of 2017's Bloodroot, she released the improvisation-based Ultraviolet in 2018 on Warp Records. For 2024's Moves in the Field, Moran went in a different direction than her earlier prepared piano material, instead composing pieces that utilized a programmable, player piano-like instrument capable of superhuman musical feats.

COMPLETE BIO

Over the past decade, New York-based composer and producer Kelly Moran has challenged the piano's traditional, classically-imposed school of thought with a more contemporary, experimental approach. An accomplished and highly sought-after composer, Moran has collaborated and performed with FKA twigs and Oneohtrix Point Never as part of their live ensembles. Moran has also composed for classical musician Margaret Leng Tan and recorded collaborations with other visionary contemporaries like Kelsey Lu, Yves Tumor, The Avalanches, Helado Negro, Bibio, and more. 

As a solo artist, Moran's critically acclaimed albums, Bloodroot and Ultraviolet, have explored a variety of extended piano techniques like John Cage-inspired prepared piano and exercises in improvisation. Her unique strand of experimental piano compositions, which conjure hypnotizing textures and dramatic compositional arcs, have been included on year-end lists across classical, avant-garde, and metal genres. Moran’s most recent album, Moves in the Field, was praised by the New York Times for being “a softhearted but steel-skinned set of 10 piano pieces that are as rapturous as a waterfall or as delicate as vapor. Her first album in six years, it is the redemptive conclusion in an extended span of personal tragedy and professional doubt, all ingrained in its sweeping songs.”